Gaumata (GAUMAATA) or False Smerdis (ψευδὴς Σμέρδις) or Sphendadates (Σφενδαδάτης) (and various other names and aliases) appears in epigraphical and historiographical sources of classical antiquity as a late-6th century BCE Mede who usurped the Achaemenid throne by impersonating Bardiya, the son of Cyrus the Great. The figure appears as 'Gaumata' in the Behistun inscription of Darius I, as '(false) Smerdis' in Herodotus' Histories, and as 'Sphendadates' in the surviving fragments of Ctesias.