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Why do some modern historians question Darius I’s story about Gaumata?

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Darius the Great — Darius I This chromolithograph of a frieze at Susa depicts attendants serving Darius I.

Some modern historians question the account of Gaumata provided by Darius I because they suspect it was a political fabrication designed to legitimize his own rise to power.12

In his official account inscribed on the Bisotun rock, Darius claimed that the king he overthrew was not actually Bardiya—the son of Cyrus the Great—but rather an impostor named Gaumata who had secretly seized the throne. By framing his actions as the removal of a usurper, Darius sought to justify his seizure of the crown and his restoration of the kingship to the rightful Achaemenid house.12

However, critics point out that Darius belonged to a collateral branch of the royal family and was not the direct heir to the throne. Consequently, many scholars believe the story of the impostor was invented to provide a moral and legal pretext for his coup, and that the ruler he assassinated was indeed the true son of Cyrus.21