Historical Archeology

Weak Heir to Strong Parent

We will examine a few of the people who are not like their parents, whose many examples have been seen in history.

The most obvious examples of syndromes in children who turn into different people because they feel that they are psychologically overshadowed by their fathers or older brothers appear in history.

- 2nd Cambyses (son) of Cyrus the Great

- Xerxes I (son) of Darius the Great

- Xerxes 2 (son) of Artaxerxes 1

- Artaxerxes II and his brother Cyrus the Younger

- Tiberius (stepson and son-in-law) of Augustus

- Caligula (son) of Germanicus

- Lucius Verus of Marcus Aurelius (half-brother and son-in-law)

- Commodus (son) of Marcus Aurelius

- Bayezid II (son) of Sultan Mehmed II

- Mary 1 (daughter) of Henry 8

Cyrus II, son of Anshan King Cambyses I, would be the founder of the Achaemenid state and the first known Iranian empire in history.

So, what kind of people were the sons of Cyrus the 2nd, the embodiment of the title Great?

Cambyses II, son of Cyrus the Great and Queen Kassandane, and his mother, the disputed Smerdis (called in Bardiya), were not crown princes as they were thought to be.

His son Cambyses II, whom Cyrus declared King of Babylon so that he could learn about the administration, disappointed his father with his fondness for palace life rather than administration. Before the Scythian war, where Cyrus was claimed to have died, the relationship between prince Cambyses and his father was more complicated than one might imagine.

- In the history of Herodotus, it is mentioned that Cambyses wanted to marry his own sisters Atossa and Roxane, contrary to Zoroastrian laws.

These marriages are childless. There were children, but it is not known whether they died because there are no records.

- Some believe that Cambyses was influenced by the dynastic system after he conquered Egypt and aimed to avoid concessions to his family with a queen from another family by making his own sister queen.

Although this practice seems logical to the Egyptians, it is against the Persian religious structure and the heirs do not live long due to hereditary diseases.

When Cambyses was wounded and died of gangrene, his own or half-brother Smerdis was succeeded, and he declared Atossa queen. Considering the upheavals, Smerdis is thought to be the queen's stepson because dynastic princes like Darius the Great started a rebellion to overthrow him and replace him.

- According to Persian law, the queen's sons have priority on the throne.

According to Herodotus, Darius the Great did not organize the revolt alone, but also took his friends from 6 big Persian families who thought like him.

Before Darius the Great took the throne, he married and had three sons from this marriage. However, as soon as Darius came to the throne, he declared Atossa his queen.

Queen Atossa was a better ruler than one might think. Herodotus complains in his History book (Book 7 of Polymnia) that Darius the Great did not go beyond Atossa's words and that what the queen wanted was generally done.

- Did Queen Atossa support Darius on condition that she be queen? Atossa may even have convinced his brother, King Cambyses.

With the support of Darius Atossa, he sets an example of a good ruler like his predecessor Cyrus. According to Herodotos and Sayce, the heir to the duo, Xerxes turns into a completely different man in a period that dates after his mother's death.