Who really was “that Darius who was defeated by the young Macedonian king”? For some reason, it is believed that against the background of the personality of Alexander the Great, his enemy, the Persian king Darius III, does not deserve close attention. However, the author rightly believes that the weak interest in Darius and his empire is a manifestation of a general underestimation of the Achaemenid era in the history of the Ancient East. Pierre Briand is trying to answer the question: was the Great King “brave” or “unworthy”, posed back in Antiquity...