Darius III

About Darius III

Darius III, born around -380, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning until his death in -330. His historical importance stems from his direct confrontation with the rising power of Alexander the Great, culminating in the decisive defeat that marked the end of Persian dominance in the ancient Near East. This pivotal role in a foundational moment of Western and Middle Eastern history earns him a position at rank #954 in MIT's Historical Popularity Index.

Despite this significant historical standing, Darius III garners relatively low digital attention, registering approximately 271K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This places his attention gap at roughly 1x, suggesting his online visibility is only proportional to his historical importance, or perhaps slightly less than expected given the scale of the Pantheon rankings. For contrast, António de Oliveira Salazar, a 20th-century politician with a similar importance rank (#981), captured over twice as many views (525K) in the same year, highlighting a comparative lack of modern internet interest in the final king of Persia.

Furthermore, the trajectory of interest in Darius III appears to be downward; his 2025 year-over-year change shows a steep decline of -50.0%, and his momentum dropped by -19% between Q1 and Q3. This indicates that any recent spikes in interest have faded, suggesting a continued erosion of his contemporary digital footprint.