Who Controls the Story

The impostor king crisis of 522 BCE shows how propaganda and power have been inseparable since the dawn of empire.

• Someone claiming to be Bardiya seized the Persian throne after the real prince was reportedly secretly murdered
• Darius killed the alleged impostor and faced nineteen rebellions in a single year
• The Behistun Inscription, carved about 100 meters up a cliff, tells only Darius's version
• Whether the impostor was real or Darius fabricated the story remains unknown

Whoever survives to carve the cliff gets to decide what really happened.