Gobryas (conspirator)
Gobryas (Old Persian Gaubaruva): one of the seven conspirators who killed the Magian usurper Gaumâta and helped Darius the Great become king (September 522 BC).
Gobryas was one of the seven conspirators who killed the Magian usurper Gaumâta and helped Darius the Great become king (September 522 BC). As a reward for his help, Gobryas was appointed Darius' lance carrier (arštibara). In this way, he is represented on the Behistun inscription and on Darius' tomb in Naqš-i Rustam, where an inscription is added (DNc):
Gobryas from Pâtišuvariš, the lance carrier of king Darius.
It is not clear what "Pâtišuvariš" means, but perhaps it indicates a village or a clan.
In the autumn of 521, Gobryas was sent to Elam, where he defeated the rebel king Atamaita; after this, he served as satrap of Elam. According to the Greek researcher Herodotus, he also took part in Darius' catastrophic campaign against the European Scythians, which took place in 514 or 513.
He was still alive in March 498, when he was, according to one of the Persepolis fortification tablets, traveling on duty in the mountains of eastern Elam. According to the same text, he was the man who received the largest rations in the country, which suggests that he was the most important man in the country after the king and crown prince.
Gobryas was married to a full sister of Darius, Artazostre or Radušdukda (a daughter of Hystaspes). They had a son Mardonius, one of the Persian generals during Xerxes' campaign to Greece (in 480-479 BCE). A daughter of Gobryas, from an earlier marriage, was married to Darius.