Had to see a man about a horse

[jmtorres]

So I was doing some Darius research to have something intelligent to say for discussion purposes, and I discovered, much to my suprise, there's a historical Darius, who became king of Persia via assassination in 522 BCE. I waffle on whether Highlander's Darius is intended to be the same man, but the information is amusing in any case. Herodotus uses Darius (who is a distant cousin of the royal family) and the two sons of the dead king (one of whom dies on his own, one of whom Darius assassinates) as mouthpieces to discuss democracy, aristocratic oligarchy, and monarchy--Darius argues in favor of monarchy. And wins. Oh, oh, but this is the kicker--

When the council broke up, Darius said to him: 'Oebares, we have resolved to do as follows about the kingship: he shall be elected whose horse, after we are all mounted on our horses in the suburb of the city, neighs first at sunrise.'

Naturally, one assumes he had something to do with other Horsemen. Methos, perchance. I like to think of them after the Apocalyptic Horsemen broke up, but before Methos--or Darius, for that matter--reformed. Bad boys together in Persia! And is it just me, or does "assassination of the rightful heir to the throne" sound like Methos all over?

Comments

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember that Darius was the father of Xerxes, so you can probably turn up some stuff on that name as well.

Or was Xerxes the father of Darius ... ? Who the hell knows. Aren't Immortals supposed to be infertile?

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

I've seen both "Xerxes, son of Darius" and "Darius, son of Xerxes." Probably named one after the other? And yes, Immortals are infertile. But I tend to believe they would find ways around it when in positions requiring heirs. "My beloved wife, please have sex with my best friend. I want to watch. No, really."

[cadetdru.livejournal.com]

Does sound like Methos...

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

This is going into random story #9.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I don't believe HL's Darius is intended to be Darius of Persia, but it's an interesting congruence. (I think HL's Darius is both younger and Roman, but I could be smoking the crack cocaine again, and the site I used to look this stuff up on seems to have gone poof.)

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

I remember their saying he was Roman, but it seems to me that "younger" should be up for grabs. I mean, he's Immortal. He may have had a light quickening and converted to Christianity somewhere between 2000 and 1500 years ago, but that doesn't mean he wasn't riding around raising hell in 600 or 500 BCE.

While I make such an argument to allow myself some measure of believability if I use this info for fic, I still don't know what the show in fact intended.

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are a few Persian Dariuses, but the one you're talking about couldn't be our guy. He does have a connection to Ahriman myths and literature, though.

Darius the Immortal was a leader of a Goth tribe, born in the year 50 CE, died as a mortal in 95 (according to the Watchers CD). He led a Goth army on a successful campaign across Europe until he reached "the gates of Paris" some time around 400. There isn't much factual information in canon, excluding the HL novel, before the early 1800s, when he comes into contact with MacLeod. Most of it is hearsay or legend.

I've wondered about a northern European tribesman having the name Darius, myself, and whether it was a name adopted during his military career or his early religious explorations. It's the Greek/Latin approximation of Darayvash.

Like the idea of bad boy Methos riding with Darius -- and maybe fighting Marcus, since Marcus drops a remark to MacLeod about having been an ancient enemy of Darius, most likely when he was a Roman general.

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

(according to the Watchers CD).

I keep hearing about this, but have no access to it. (Or is this flash-flash-flash from when Christine Salzer boots it up in Finale?) Fandom generally considers it canon, though? Personally, I'd argue over the validity of Immortal birthdates as recorded by the Watchers, since there's no way they can be recording Immortals' lives from birth. The Watchers ID them by catching them reviving or taking a quickening, right? And if they're lucky, they can trace the Immortal's roots, but, I mean, suppose Adam Pierson claims to have been born in Cardiff in 1963, and it's on all his paperwork. The Watchers might record it, but it doesn't make it true. Likewise, if the Watchers first spotted Darius reviving when he was 600 or so, they might assume that was his first death, and he wouldn't be advertising any different.

It's the Greek/Latin approximation of Darayvash.

Does that name have any significance/interesting etymology?

Re:

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

There's a lot to be said for disregarding the Watchers' database -- speaking about the database within the fictional framework, not the RL CD -- I think Taz will probably weigh in on this soon. Me, I think the whole history and distribution of Watchers in the ancient world is up for kicking around.

The Watcher CD was available through the official HL site; I don't know if it's still up for sale. Texts from the CD, plus some additional info, I think, are included on the DVD sets. A very few screens from the fictional CD did appear on screen in the Finale episodes, and one of them was Darius.

Opinions vary on whether or not the RL CD is canon. Other people might have more info for you on this. I like to know what the creators and their minions have to say about the characters & universe that they initially made. What we do with them is another matter.

Have to run back to work; see what I can get you on the name

Re:

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

Also -- the physical appearance of the character onscreen/in canon should be taken into account. The onscreen Darius looks much more like a probable Goth than a Persian.