Listed 36 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "PERSEPOLIS Town IRAN" .
PERSEPOLIS (Ancient city) IRAN
Gaos, the commander of the Persian fleet, in the great expedition sent by Artaxerxes
against Evagoras in Cyprus, B. C. 386. In this situation he was subordinate to
Tiribazus, whose daughter he had married, and who held the chief command by sea;
but he contributed essentially to the success of the war, and totally defeated
the fleet of Evagoras off Citium. But the protracted siege of Salamis having given
rise to dissensions among the generals, which led to the recal of Tiribazus, Gaos
became apprehensive of being involved in his disgrace, and determined to revolt
from the Persian king. Accordingly, after the termination of the Cyprian war,
he kept together the forces under his command, on whose attachment he deemed that
he could rely, and entered into an alliance with Acoris, king of Egypt, and with
the Lacedaemonians, who gladly embraced the opportunity to renew hostilities against
Persia. But in the midst of his preparations, Gaos was cut off by secret assassination.
(Diod. xv. 3, 9, 18.) It is undoubtedly the same person who is called by Polyaenus
(vii. 20) Glos (Glos), whom that author mentions as carrying on war in Cyprus.
There is some doubt, indeed, which is the more correct form of the name. (See
Casaubon, ad Polyacn. l. c. ; Wesseling, ad Diod. xv. 3.)
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Ariabignes, the son of Dareius, and one of the commanders of the fleet of his brother Xerxes, fell in the battle of Salamis, B. C. 480 (Herod. vii. 97, viii. 89). Plutarch calls him (Them. c. 14) Ariamenes, and speaks of him as a brave man and the justest of the brothers of Xerxes. The same writer relates (de Fratern. Am.), that this Ariamenes (called by Justin, ii. 10, Artemenes) laid claim to the throne on the death of Dareius, as the eldest of his sons, but was opposed by Xerxes, who maintained that he had a right to the crown as the eldest of the sons born after Dareius had become king. The Persians appointed Artabanus to decide the dispute; and upon his declaring in favour of Xerxes, Ariamenes immediately saluted his brother as king, and was treated by him with great respect. According to Herodotus (vii. 2), who calls the eldest son of Dareius, Artabazanes, this dispute took place in the life-time of Dareius.
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Artabazus, one of the generals of Artaxerxes I., was sent to Egypt to put down the revolt of Inarus, B. C. 462. He advanced as far as Memphis, and accomplished his object. (Diod. xi. 74, 77; comp. Thuc. i. 109; Ctesias, Pers. p. 42, ed. Lion.) In B. C. 450, he was one of the commanders of the Persian fleet, near Cyprus, against Cimon. (Diod. xii. 4.)
Artybius (Artuxios), a Persian general in the reign of Dareius Hystaspis, who, after the Ionian revolt had broken out, sailed with a fleet to Cyprus to conquer that island. He was killed in battle by Onesilus, the principal among the chiefs of Cyprus. (Herod. v. 108-110)
Autophradates, a Persian, who distinguished himself as a general in the reign of Artaxerxes III. and Dareius Codomannus. In the reign of the former he made Artabazus, the revolted satrap of Lydia and Ionia, his prisoner, but afterwards set him free (Dem. c. Aristocr.). After the death of the Persian admiral, Memnon, in B. C. 333, Autophradates and Pharnabazus undertook the command of the fleet, and reduced Mytilene, the siege of which had been begun by Memnon. Pharnabazus now sailed with his prisoners to Lycia, and Autophradates attacked the other islands of the Aegaean, which espoused the cause of Alexander the Great. But Pharnabazus soon after joined Autophradates again, and both sailed against Tenedos, which was induced by fear to surrender to the Persians (Arrian, ANab. ii. 1). During these expeditions Autophradates also laid siege to the town of Atarneus in Mysia, but without success (Aristot. Polit. ii. 4.10). Among the Persian satraps who appeared before Alexander at Zadracarta, Arrian (Anab. iii. 23) mentions an Autophradates, satrap of the Tapuri, whom Alexander left in the possession of the satrapy. But this satrap is undoubtedly a different person from the Autophradates who commanded the Persian fleet in the Aegean.
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Abrocomas (Abrokomas), one of the satraps of Artaxerxes Mnemon, was sent with an army of 300,000 men to oppose Cyrus on his march into upper Asia. On the arrival of Cyrus at Tarsus, Abrocomas was said to be on the Euphrates; and at Issus four hundred heavy-armed Greeks, who had deserted Abrocomas, joined Cyrus. Abrocomas did not defend the Syrian passes, as was expected, but marched to join the king. He burnt some boats to prevent Cyrus from crossing the Euphrates, but did not arrive in time for the battle of Cunaxa. (Xen. Anab. i. 3.20, 4.3, 5, 18, 7.12; Harpocrat. and Suidas, s. v.)
Daurises, the son-in-law of Dareius Hystaspis, was one of the Persian commanders who were employed in suppressing the Ionian revolt. (B. C. 499.) After the defeat of the Ionian army at Ephesus, Daurises marched against the cities on the Hellespont, and took Dardanus, Abydus, Percote, Lampsacus, and Paesus, each in one day. He then marched against the Carians, who had just joined in the Ionian revolt, and defeated them in two battles; but shortly afterwards Daurises fell into an ambush, and was killed, with a great number of the Persians. (Herod. v. 116-121.)
Mardontes, a Persian nobleman, son of Bagaeus (see Herod. iii. 128), commanded, in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the forces from the islands in the Persian gulf. (Herod. iii. 93, vii. 80.) On the retreat of Xerxes, he was left behind as one of the admirals of the fleet, and he fell at the battle of Mycale, in B. C. 479. (Herod. viii. 130, ix. 102.)
Artabazus, a distinguished Persian, a son of Pharnaces, who lived in the reign of Xerxes.
In the expedition of this king to Greece, B. C. 480, Artabazus commanded the Parthians
and Choasmians (Herod. vii. 66). When Xerxes quitted Greece, Artabazus accompanied
him as far as the Hellespont, and then returned with his forces to Pallene. As
Potidaea and the other towns of Pallene had revolted from the king after the battle
of Salamis, Artabazus determined to reduce them. He first laid siege to Olynthus,
which he took; he butchered the inhabitants whom he had compelled to quit the
town, and gave the place and the town to the Chalcidians. After this Artabazus
began the siege of Potidaea, and endeavoured to gain his end by bribes; but the
treachery was discovered and his plans thwarted. The siege lasted for three months,
and when at last the town seemed to be lost by the low waters of the sea, which
enabled his troops to approach the walls from the sea-side, an almost wonderful
event saved it, for the returning tide was higher than it had ever been before.
The troops of Artabazus were partly overwhelmed by the waters and partly cut down
by a sally of the Potidaeans. He now withdrew with the remnants of his army to
Thessaly, to join Mardonius (viii. 126-130).
Shortly before the battle of Plataeae, B. C. 479, Artabazus dissuaded
Mardonius from entering on an engagement with the Greeks, and urged him to lead
his army to Thebes in order to obtain provisions for the men and the cattle; for
he entertained the conviction that the mere presence of the Persians would soon
compel the Greeks to surrender (ix. 41). His counsel had no effect, and as soon
as he perceived the defeat of the Persians at Plataeae, he fled with forty thousand
men through Phocis, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, to Byzantium, and led the
remnants of his army, which had been greatly diminished by hunger and the fatigues
of the retreat, across the Hellespont into Asia. (ix. 89; Diod. xi. 31, 33.) Subsequently
Artabazus conducted the negotiations between Xerxes and Pausanias (Thuc. i. 129;
Diod. xi. 44; C. Nepos, Paus. 2, 4).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artabazus, a Persian general, who was sent in B. C. 362, in the reign of Artaxerxes II., against the revolted Datames, satrap of Cappadocia, but was defeated by the bravery and resolution of the latter (Diod. xv. 91). In the reign of Artaxerxes III., Artabazus was satrap of western Asia, but in B. C. 356 he refused obedience to the king, which involved him in a war with the other satraps, who acknowledged the authority of Artaxerxes. He was at first supported by Chares, the Athenian, and his mercenaries, whom he rewarded very generously. Afterwards he was also supported by the Thebans, who sent him 5000 men under Pammenes. With the assistance of these and other allies, Artabazus defeated his enemies in two great battles. Artaxerxes, however, succeeded in depriving him of his Athenian and Boeotian allies, whereupon Artabazus was defeated by the king's general, Autophradates, and was even taken prisoner. The Rhodians, Mentor and Memnon, two brothers-in-law of Artabazus, who had like-wise supported him, still continued to maintain themselves, as they were aided by the Athenian Charidemus, and even succeeded in obtaining the liberation of Artabazus. After this, Artabazus seems either to have continued his rebellious operations, or at least to have commenced afterwards a fresh revolt; but he was at last obliged, with Memnon and his whole family, to take refuge with Philip of Macedonia. During the absence of Artabazus, Mentor, his brother-in-law, was of great service to the king of Persia in his war against Nectanebus of Egypt. After the close of this war, in B. C. 349, Artaxerxes gave to Mentor the command against the rebellious satraps of western Asia. Mentor availed himself of the opportunity to induce the king to grant pardon to Artabazus and Memnon, who accordingly obtained permission to return to Persia (Diod. xvi. 22, 34, 52; Dem. c. Aristoer.). In the reign of Dareius Codomannus, Artabazus distinguished himself by his great fidelity and attachment to his sovereign. He took part in the battle of Arbela, and afterwards accompanied Dareius on his flight. After the death of the latter, Alexander rewarded Artabazus for his fidelity with the satrapy of Bactria. His daughter, Barsine, became by Alexander the mother of Heracles; a second daughter, Artocama, was given in marriage to Ptolemy; and a third, Artonis, to Eumenes. In B. C. 328, Artabazus, then a man of very advanced age, resigned his satrapy, which was given to Cleitus. (Arrian, Anab. iii. 23, 29, vii. 4; Curtius, iii. 13, v. 9, 12, vi. 5, vii. 3, 5, viii. 1; Strab. xii.)
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Hystaspes, (Hustaspes; in Persian, Goshtasp, Gustasp, Histasp, or Wistasp). The
son of Arsames, and father of Dareius I., was a member of the Persian royal house
of the Achaemenidae. He was satrap of Persis under Cambyses, and probably under
Cyrus also. He accompanied Cyrus on his expedition against the Massagetae; but
he was sent back to Persis, to keep watch over his eldest son Dareius, whom Cyrus,
in consequence of a dream, suspected of meditating treason. Besides Dareius, Hystaspes
had two sons, Artabanus and Artanes. (Herod. i. 209, 210, iii. 70, iv. 83, vii.
224.) Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6) makes him a chief of the Magians, and tells
a story of his studying in India under the Brahmins. His name occurs in the inscriptions
at Persepolis. (Grotefend, Beilage zu Heeren's Ideen.)
Cambyses was the son and successor of Cyrus the Great. He ruled the
Persian Empire from the death of his father in 530 to his own death in Ecbatane
(Syria) in 522 while on his
way back from Egypt with
his army.
He continued the policy of expansion started by his father Cyrus.
First, he took part with his father to the conquest of Babylonia and was named
king of Babylon after the
capture of the city in 539. After becoming king of Persia,
he conquered Egypt and was
named Pharao in 526. But he had a repute of madness and despotism which led to
palace struggles for the succession and it is possible that he was in fact assassinated
upon order of one of his brothers, Smerdis, which he himself tried to have assassinated.
At his death, after a short period during which Smerdis assumed the
leadership, more palace struggles led to the rise to the throne of Persia
of Darius the Great, whose task it was to organise such a vast empire.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
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Cambyses (Kambuses). The son and successor of Cyrus the Great, ascended
the throne of Persia B.C. 530. Soon after the commencement of his reign, he undertook
the conquest of Egypt, being incited to the step, according to the Persian account
as given in Herodotus, by the conduct of Amasis, the king of that country. Cambyses,
it seems, had demanded in marriage the daughter of Amasis; but the latter, knowing
that the Persian monarch intended to make her, not his wife, but his concubine,
endeavoured to deceive him by sending in her stead the daughter of his predecessor
Apries. The historian gives another account; but it is more than probable that
both are untrue, and that ambitious feelings alone on the part of Cambyses prompted
him to the enterprise. Amasis died before Cambyses marched against Egypt, and
his son Psammenitus succeeded to the throne. A bloody battle was fought near the
Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, and the Egyptians were put to flight, after which
Cambyses made himself master of the whole country, and received tokens of submission
also from the Cyrenaeans and the people of Barca. The kingdom of Egypt was thus
conquered by him in six months.
Cambyses now formed new projects. He wished to send a squadron
and subjugate Carthage, to conquer Aethiopia, and to make himself master of the
famous temple of Zeus Ammon. The first of these expeditions, however, did not
take place, because the Phoenicians, who composed his naval force, would not attack
one of their own colonies. The army that was sent against the Ammonians perished
in the desert, and the troops at whose head he himself had set out against the
Aethiopians were compelled by hunger to retreat. How far he advanced into Aethiopia
can not be ascertained from anything that Herodotus says. Diodorus Siculus, however,
makes Cambyses to have penetrated as far as the spot where Meroe stood, which
city, according to this same writer, he founded. After his return from Aethiopia,
the Persian king gave himself up to the greatest acts of outrage and cruelty.
On entering Memphis he found the inhabitants engaged in celebrating the festival
of the reappearance of Apis, and, imagining that these rejoicings were made on
account of his ill success, he caused the sacred bull to be brought before him,
stabbed him with his dagger, of which wound the animal afterwards died. He also
ordered the priests to be scourged.
Cambyses is said to have been subject to epilepsy from his
earliest years; and the habit of drinking, in which he now indulged to excess,
rendered him at times completely furious. No relation was held sacred by him when
intoxicated. Having dreamed that his brother Smerdis was seated on the royal throne,
he sent one of his principal confidants to Persia, with orders to put him to death,
a mandate which was actually accomplished. His sister and wife Atossa, who lamented
the death of Smerdis, he kicked so severely as to bring on an abortion. These
and many other actions, alike indicative of almost complete insanity, aroused
against him the feelings of his subjects. A member of the order called the Magi
availed himself of this discontent, and, aided by the strong resemblance which
he bore to the murdered Smerdis, as well as by the exertions of a brother who
was also a Magian, seized upon the throne of Persia, and sent heralds in every
direction, commanding all to obey, for the time to come, Smerdis, son of Cyrus,
and not Cambyses. The news of this usurpation reached Cambyses at a place in Syria
called Ecbatana, where he was at that time with his army. Resolving to return
with all speed to Susa, the monarch was in the act of mounting his horse, when
his sword fell from its sheath and inflicted a mortal wound in his thigh. An oracle,
it is said, had been given him from Butus that he would end his life at Ecbatana,
but he had always thought that the Median Ecbatana was meant by it. He died of
his wound soon after, B.C. 522, leaving no children. Ctesias gives a different
account. He makes Cambyses to have died at Babylon of a wound he had given himself
on the femoral muscle, while shaving smooth a piece of wood with a small knife.
According to Herodotus, Cambyses reigned seven years and five months.
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Cambyses, a son of Cyrus the Great, by Amytis according to Ctesias, by Cassandane
according to Herodotus, who sets aside as a fiction the Egyptian story of his
having had Nitetis, the daughter of Apries, for his mother. This same Nitetis
appears in another version of the tale, which is not very consistent with chronology,
as the concubine of Cambyses; and it is said that the detection of the fraud of
Amasis in substituting her for his own daughter, whom Cambyses had demanded for
his seraglio, was the cause of the invasion of Egypt by the latter in the fifth
year of his reign, B. C. 525. There is, however, no occasion to look for any other
motive than the same ambition which would have led Cyrus to the enterprise, had
his life been spared, besides that Egypt, having been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar,
seems to have formed a portion of the Babylonian empire. In his invasion of the
country, Cambyses is said by Herodotus to have been aided by Phanes, a Greek of
Halicarnassus, who had fled from the service of Amasis; and, by his advice, the
Persian king obtained the assistance of an Arabian chieftain, and thus secured
a safe passage through the desert, and a supply of water for his army. Before
the invading force reached Egypt, Amasis died and was succeeded by his son, who
is called Psammenitus by Herodotus, and Amyrtaeus by Ctesias. According to Ctesias,
the conquest of Egypt was mainly effected through the treachery of Combapheus,
one of the favourite eunuchs of the Egyptian king, who put Cambyses in possession
of the passes on condition of being made viceroy of the country. But Herodotus
makes no mention either of this intrigue, or of the singular stratagem by which
Polyaenus says (vii. 9), that Pelusium was taken almost without resistance. He
tells us, [p. 589] however, that a single battle, in which the Persians were victorious,
decided the fate of Egypt; and, though some of the conquered held out for a while
in Memphis, they were finally obliged to capitulate, and the whole nation submitted
to Cambyses. He received also the voluntary submission of the Greek cities, Cyrene
and Barca, and of the neighbouring Libyan tribes, and projected fresh expeditions
against the Aethiopians, who were called the "long-lived," and also against Carthage
and the Ammonians. Having set out on his march to Aethiopia, he was compelled
by want of provisions to return; the army which he sent against the Ammonians
perished in the sands; and the attack on Carthage fell to the ground in consequence
of the refusal of the Phoenicians to act against their colony. Yet their very
refusal serves to shew what is indeed of itself sufficiently obvious, how important
the expedition would have been in a commercial point of view, while that against
the Ammonians, had it succeeded, would probably have opened to the Persians the
caravan-trade of the desert (Herod. ii. 1, iii. 1-26; Ctes. Pers. 9 ; Just. i.
9).
Cambyses appears to have ruled Egypt with a stern and strong hand;
and to him perhaps we may best refer the prediction of Isaiah: "The Egyptians
will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord" (Is. xix. 4); and it is possible
that his tyranny to the conquered, together with the insults offered by him to
their national religion, may have caused some exaggeration in the accounts of
his madness, which, in fact, the Egyptians ascribed to his impiety. But, allowing
for some over-statement, it does appear that he had been subject from his birth
to epileptic fits (Herod. iii. 33); and, in addition to the physical tendency
to insanity thus created, the habits of despotism would seem to have fostered
in him a capricious self-will and a violence of temper bordering upon frenzy.
He had long set the laws of Persia at defiance by marrying his sisters, one of
whom he is said to have murdered in a fit of passion because she lamented her
brother Smerdis, whom he had caused to be slain. Of the death of this prince,
and of the events that followed upon it, different accounts are given by Herodotus
and Ctesias. The former relates that Cambyses, alarmed by a dream which seemed
to portend his brother's greatness, sent a confidential minister named Prexaspes
to Susa with orders to put him to death. Afterwards, a Magian, who bore the same
name as the deceased prince and greatly resembled him in appearance, took advantage
of these circumstances to personate him and set up a claim to the throne, and
Cambyses, while marching through Syria against this pretender, died at a place
named Ecbatana of an accidental wound in the thigh, B. C. 521. According to Ctesias,
the name of the king's murdered brother was Tanyoxarces, and a Magian named Sphendadates
accused him to the king of an intention to revolt. After his death by poison,
Cambyses, to conceal it from his mother Amytis, made Sphendadates personate him.
The fraud succeeded at first, from the wonderful likeness between the Magian and
the murdered prince; at length, however, Amytis discovered it, and died of poison,
which she had voluntarily taken, imprecating curses on Cambyses. The king died
at Babylon of an accidental wound in the thigh, and Sphendadates continued to
support the character of Tanyoxarces, and maintained himself for some time on
the throne (Herod. iii. 27-38, 61-66; Ctes. Pers. 10-12; Diod. Exc. de Virt. et
Vit.; Strab. x., xvii.; Just. i. 9). Herodotus says (iii. 89), that the Persians
always spoke of Cambyses by the name of despotes, in remembrance of his tyranny.
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Dareius or Darius (Dareios, Dareiaios, Ctes., Heb. i. e. Daryavesh), the name of several kings of Persia. Like such names in general, it is no doubt a significant title. Herodotus (vi. 98) says that it means herxeies; but the meaning of this Greek word is doubtful. Some take it to be a form fabricated by Herodotus himself, for rhexias or prekter, from the root erps (do), meaning the person who achieves great things; but it is more probably derived from heirpso (restrain), in the sense of the ruler. In modern Persian Dara or Darab means lord, which approaches very near to the form seen in the Perscpolitan inscription, Dareush or Daryush (where the sh is no doubt an adjective termination), as well as to the Hebrew form. Precisely the same result is obtained from a passage of Strabo (xvi.), who mentions, among the changes which names suffer in passing from one language to another, that Dareios is a corruption of Dareiekes, or, as Salmasius has corrected it, of Dariaues, that is Daryav. This view also explains the form Dareiaios used by Ctesias. The introduction of the y sound after the r in these forms is explained by Grotefend. Some writers have fancied that Herodotus, in saying that Dareios means herxeies, and that Xerxes means areios, was influenced in the choice of his words by their resemblance to the names; and they add, as if it were a matter of course, the simple fact, which contradicts their notion, that the order of correspondence must be inverted. (Bahr, Annot. ad loc. )
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Dareius, Darius (Dareios; Pers. Daryavas). Surnamed Hystaspis (or son
of Hystaspes), a satrap of Persia, born B.C. 548, and belonging to the royal line
of the Achaemenides. His father Hystaspes had been governor of the province of
Persia. Seven noblemen of the highest rank, among whom was Darius, conspired to
dethrone the Magian Smerdis, who had usurped the crown after the death of Cambyses,
and, having accomplished their object (B.C. 521), resolved that one of their number
should reign in his stead. According to Herodotus, they agreed to meet at early
dawn in the suburbs of the capital, and that he of their number whose horse should
first neigh at the rising of the sun should possess the kingdom. If we believe
the historian, who gives two accounts of the matter, Darius obtained the crown
through an artful contrivance on the part of his groom. It is more probable, however,
that, in consequence of his relationship to the royal line, his election to the
throne was the unanimous act of the other conspirators. It is certain, indeed,
that they reserved for themselves privileges which tended at least to make them
independent of the monarch, and even to keep him dependent upon them. One of their
number is said to have formally stipulated for absolute exemption from the royal
authority, as the condition on which he withdrew his claim to the crown; and the
rest acquired the right of access to the king's person at all seasons, without
asking his leave, and bound him to select his wives exclusively from their families.
How far the power of Darius, though nominally despotic, was really limited by
these privileges of his nobles, may be seen from an occurrence which took place
in the early part of his reign, in the case of Intaphernes, who had been one of
the partners in the conspiracy. He revenged himself, it is true, for an outrage
committed by this individual, by putting him to death; but before he ventured
to take this step, he thought it necessary to sound the other four, and to ascertain
whether they would make common cause with the offender.
Nevertheless, Darius was the greatest and most powerful king
that ever filled the throne of Persia. Cyrus and Cambyses had conquered nations;
Darius was the true founder of the Persian State. The dominions of his predecessors
were a mass of countries only united by their subjection to the will of a common
ruler, which expressed itself by arbitrary and irregular exactions. Darius first
organized them into an empire, of which every member felt its place and knew its
functions. His realm stretched from the Aegean to the Indus, from the steppes
of Scythia to the Cataracts of the Nile. He divided this vast tract into twenty
satrapies or provinces, and prescribed the tribute which each was to pay to the
royal treasury, and the proportion in which they were to supply provisions for
the army and for the king's household. A highway, on which distances were regularly
marked and spacious buildings placed to receive all who travelled in the king's
name, connected the western coast with the seat of government; and along this
road couriers trained to extraordinary speed transmitted the king's messages.
Darius, in the very beginning of his reign, meditated an expedition
against the Scythians to check their incursions for all time to come by a salutary
display of the power and resources of the Persian Empire. His march, however,
was delayed by a rebellion which broke out at Babylon. The ancient capital of
Assyria had been secretly preparing for revolt during the troubles that followed
the fall of Smerdis, and for nearly two years it defied the power of Darius. At
length the strategy of Zopyrus, a noble Persian, who sacrificed his person and
his power to the interest of his master, is said to have opened its gates to him
(circa B.C. 516). When he was freed from this care he set out for the Scythian
war (B.C. 513 or 508).
The whole military force of the Empire was put in motion, and
the numbers of the army are rated at seven or eight hundred thousand men. This
expedition of Darius into Scythia has given rise to considerable discussion. The
first point involved is to ascertain how far the Persian monarch penetrated into
the country. According to Herodotus, he crossed the Thracian Bosporus, marched
through Thrace, passed the Danube on a bridge of boats, and then pursued a Scythian
division as far as the Tanais. Having crossed this river, he traversed the territories
of the Sauromatae as far as the Budini, whose city he burned. Beyond the Budini
he entered upon a vast desert, and reached the river Oarus, where he remained
some considerable time, erecting forts upon its banks. Finding that the Scythians
had disappeared, he left these works only half finished, turned his course to
the westward, and, advancing by rapid marches, entered Scythia, where he fell
in with two of the divisions of the enemy. Pursuing these, he traversed the territories
of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, without being able to bring them to
an engagement. Provisions failing, he was eventually compelled to recross the
Danube, glad to have saved a small portion of his once numerous army. According
to other accounts, Darius only came as far as the sandy tract between the Danube
and the Tyrus, in the present Bessarabia, where, in afterdays, Antigonus was taken
prisoner by the Scythians, with his whole army.
Another expedition undertaken by command of Darius was an invasion
of India, the date, however, being doubtful. In this affair he was more successful,
and conquered a part of the Punjab; not, however, the whole country, as some modern
writers erroneously represent.
Some time after this, Miletus having revolted, and Aristagoras,
its ruler, having solicited aid from the Athenians for the purpose of enabling
it to main tain its independence, they sent twenty ships, to which the Eretrians
added five more, in order to requite a kindness previously received from the Milesians.
Aristagoras, upon the arrival of this fleet, resolved to make an expedition against
Sardis, the residence of the Persian satrap. Accordingly, landing at Ephesus,
the confederates marched inland, took Sardis, and drove the governor into the
citadel. Most of the houses in Sardis were made of reeds, and even those that
were built of brick were roofed with reeds. One of these was set on fire by a
soldier, and immediately the flames spread from house to house and consumed the
whole city. The light of the conflagration showing to the Greeks the great numbers
of their opponents, who were beginning to rally, being constrained by necessity
to defend themselves, as their retreat was cut off by the river Pactolus, the
former retired through fear and regained their ships (B.C. 501). Upon the receipt
of this entelligence, Darius, having called for a bow, put an arrow into it, and
shot it into the air, with these words, "Grant, O God, that I may be able
to revenge myself upon the Athenians." After he had thus spoken, he commanded
one of his attendants thrice every time dinner was set before him, to exclaim,
"Master! remember the Athenians." Mardonius, the king's son-in-law,
was intrusted with the care of the war. After crossing the Hellespont, he marched
down through Thrace, but, in endeavouring to double Mount Athos, he lost 300 vessels
and, it is said, more than 20,000 men (B.C. 492). After this he was attacked in
the night by the Brygi, who killed many of his men and wounded Mardonius himself.
He succeeded, however, in defeating and reducing them to subjection, but his army
was so weakened by these circumstances that he was compelled to return ingloriously
to Asia. Darius, only animated by this loss, sent a more considerable force, under
the command of Datis and Artaphernes, with orders to sack the cities of Athens
and Eretria, and to send to him all the surviving inhabitants in fetters. The
Persians took the isle of Naxos and the city of Eretria in Euboea, but were defeated
with great slaughter by the Athenians and Plataeans under the celebrated Miltiades
at Marathon (B.C. 490). Their fleet was also completely unsuccessful in an attempt
to surprise Athens after the battle. The anger of Darius was doubly inflamed against
Athens by the result at Marathon; and he resolved that the insolent people, who
had invaded his territories, violated the persons of his messengers, and put his
generals to a shameful flight, should feel the whole weight of his arm.
The preparations he now set on foot were on a vast scale and
demanded a longer time. For three years all Asia was kept in a continual stir;
in the fourth, however, Darins was distracted by other causes--by a quarrel between
his two sons respecting the succession to the throne, and by an insurrection in
Egypt. In the following year, before he had ended his preparations against Egypt
and Attica, he died, and Xerxes ascended the throne, in B.C. 485. Darius had reigned
for thirtysix years. His memory was always held in veneration by the Persians
and the other nations comprehended under his sway, whom he governed with much
wisdom and moderation.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Darius, a member of the Achemenides family, raised to the throne of
the kingdom of Persia by taking part, in 522, in a plot to assassinate Smerdis,
who had assumed the kingship that same year at the death of his brother Cambyses
on his way back from Egypt.
Both Cambyses and Smerdis were sons of Cyrus the Great, the founder
of the Persian Empire. Darius, on the other hand, was a remote cousin of them.
If Cyrus and Cambyses built the Persian empire by conquering a terrritory spanning
from the Ionian coast west to India
east, and from Scythia, Caucasus
and the southern shores of the Black
and Caspian Seas north to
Lybia, Egypt
and the shores of the Persian
Gulf south, it is Darius who organized its administration. He moved his residence
to the Elamite city of Susa,
which became the administrative capital of his empire and where he had a gigantic
palace built for himself. He divided his vast empire into satrapies headed by
Satraps and submitted to an annual tribute, and built roads across the empire
to ease the communications required to administer such a huge territory. He also
directed the building, in his native country of Persia, of another palace at Persepolis
(the “Persian city” by Greek etymology).
But Darius was not merely an administrator and, after curbing several
rebellions in various parts of the empire during his first year in power, he also
continued the policy of expansion of his ancestors, toward the east in India,
as well as toward the west and Europe, starting with Thracia.
In 499, some Ionian Greek cities of the satrapy of Lydia,
under the leadership of Aristagoras of Miletus,
rebelled against the Persians and set fire to Sardis.
It was not until 494, with the naval victory of the Persian fleet at Lade, off
the shores of Miletus, and
the recapture of Miletus,
that the rebellion was completely curbed. Having thus subdued the Ionian Greeks,
Darius set out to conquer the rest of Greece,
which led to the first Persian War. But his troops were stopped by the Athenians
at the battle of Marathon
in 490. It was left to his son Xerxes to lead a second attempt in 480, with no
more success (2nd Persian War).
Darius' reign marks the apogee of the Persian Empire, which started
to crumble by the mere fact of its size after his death, until it was conquered
by Alexander the Great (who entered Susa
in 331).
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Artystone (Artustone), a daughter of the great Cyrus, was married to Dareius Hystaspis, who loved her more than any other of his wives, and had a golden statue made of her. She had by Dareius a son, Arsames or Arsanes. (Herod. iii. 88, vii. 69.)
Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, and the wife successively of her brother Cambyses,
of Smerdis the Magian, and of Dareius Hystaspis, over whom she possessed great
influence. Excited by the description of Greece given her by Democedes, she is
said to have urged Dareius to the invasion of that country. She bore Dareius four
sons, Xerxes, Masistes, Achaemenes, and Hystaspes (Herod. iii. 68, 88, 133, 134,
vii. 2, 3, 64, 82, 97; Aeschyl. Persac.) According to a tale related by Aspasius
(ad Aristot. Ethic. p. 124), Atossa was killed and eaten by her son Xerxes in
a fit of distraction.
Hellanicus related (Tatian, c. Graec. init.; Clem. Alex. Strom. i.), that Atossa
was the first who wrote epistles. This statement is received by Bentley and is
employed by him as one argument against the authenticity of the pretended epistles
of Phalaris.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
King of Persia, father of Artaxerxes, crosses to Europe, invades Greece, overthrows Lacedaemonians at Thermopylae, burns cities of Phocis, captures Athens, his fleet defeated by Themistocles at Salamis, Xerxes a spectator of the battle of Salamis, his council of war after the battle, his fear of the Greeks, story of his danger of shipwreck in his return.
Xerxes. A king of Persia from B.C. 485 to 465. He was the son
of Darius Hystaspis and Atossa. By the influence of Atossa, who was a daughter
of Cyrus, Artabazanes, the son of Darius by his former wife, was set aside from
the succession and Xerxes made him heir. Xerxes succeeded to the throne in B.C.
485, Darius having died in the midst of his warlike preparations against Greece,
which had been delayed by a revolt of the Egyptians. Bred up in the luxury of
the Persian court, among slaves and women, a mark for their flattery and intrigues,
Xerxes had none of the experience which Darius had gained in early life. He was
probably inferior to his father in ability; but the difference between them in
fortune and education seems to have left more traces in their history than any
disparity of nature. Ambition was not the prominent feature in the character of
Xerxes; and, had he followed his unbiassed inclination, he would, perhaps, have
been content to turn the preparations of Darius against the revolted Egyptians,
and have abandoned the expedition against Greece, to which he was not urged on
by any personal motives. But he was surrounded by men who were led by various
passions and interests to desire that he should prosecute his father's plans of
conquest and revenge. Mardonius was eager to renew an enterprise in which he had
been foiled through unavoidable mischance, and not through his own incapacity.
He had a reputation to retrieve, and might look forward to the possession of a
great European satrapy, at such a distance from the court as would make him almost
an absolute sovereign. He was warmly seconded by those Greeks who had been drawn
to Susa by the report of the approaching invasion of their country, and who wanted
foreign aid to accomplish their designs. The Thessalian house of the Aleuadae,
either because they thought their power insecure, or expected to increase it by
becoming vassals of the Persian king, sent their emissaries to invite him to the
conquest of Greece. The exiled Pisistratidae had no other chance for the recovery
of Athens. They had brought a man named Onomacritus with them to court, who was
one of the first among the Greeks to practise the art of forging prophecies and
oracles. While their family ruled at Athens he had been detected in fabricating
verses, which he had interpolated in a work ascribed to the ancient seer Musaeus,
and Hipparchus, previously his patron, had banished him from the city. But the
exiles saw the use they might make of his talents, and had taken him into their
service. They now recommended him to Xerxes as a man who possessed a treasure
of prophetical knowledge, and the young king listened with unsuspecting confidence
to the encouraging predictions which Onomacritus drew from his inexhaustible stores.
These various devices at length prevailed. The imagination of Xerxes was inflamed
with the prospect of rivalling or surpassing the achievements of his glorious
predecessors, and of extending his dominion to the ends of the earth. He resolved
on the invasion of Greece. First, however, in the second year of his reign, he
led an army against Egypt, and brought it again under the Persian yoke, which
was purposely made more burdensome and galling than before. He intrusted this
conquest to the care of his brother Achaemenes, and then returned to Persia, and
bent all his thoughts towards the West. Only one of his counsellors, his uncle
Artabanus, is said to have been wise and honest enough to endeavour to divert
him from the enterprise, and especially to dissuade him from risking his own person
in it. If any reliance could be placed on the story told by Herodotus about the
deliberations held on this question in the Persian cabinet, we might suspect that
the influence and arts of the Magian priesthood, which we find in this reign rising
in credit, had been set at work by the adversaries of Artabanus to counteract
his influence over the mind of his nephew, and to confirm Xerxes in his martial
mood. The vast preparations were continued with redoubled activity, to raise an
armament worthy of the presence of the king. His aim was not merely to collect
a force sufficient to insure the success of his undertaking and to scare away
all opposition, but also, and perhaps principally, to set his whole enormous power
in magnificent array, that he might enjoy the sight of it himself, and display
it to the admiration of the world.
For four years longer Asia was still kept in restless turmoil;
no less time was needed to provide the means of subsistence for the countless
host that was about to be poured out upon Europe. Besides the stores that were
to be carried in the fleet which was to accompany the army, it was necessary that
magazines should be formed along the whole line of march as far as the confines
of Greece. But, in addition to these prudent precautions, two works were begun,
which scarcely served any other purpose than that of showing the power and majesty
of Xerxes, and proving that he would suffer no obstacles to bar his progress.
It would have been easy to transport his troops in ships over the Hellespont;
but it was better suited to the dignity of the monarch, who was about to unite
both continents under his dominion, to join them by a bridge laid upon the subject
channel, and to march across as along a royal road. The storm that had destroyed
the fleet which accompanied Mardonius in his unfortunate expedition had made the
coast of Athos terrible to the Persians. The simplest mode of avoiding this formidable
cape would have been to draw their ships over the narrow, low neck that connects
the mountain with the mainland. But Xerxes preferred to leave a monument of his
greatness and of his enterprise in a canal cut through the isthmus, a distance
of about a mile and a half. This work employed a multitude of men for three years.
The construction of the two bridges which were thrown across the Hellespont was
intrusted to the skill of the Phoenicians and Egyptians.
When these preparations were drawing to a close, Xerxes set
forth for Sardis, where he designed to spend the following winter, and to receive
the reinforcements which he had appointed there to join the main army (B.C. 481).
During his stay at Sardis the Phoenician and Egyptian engineers completed their
bridges on the Hellespont; but the work was not strong enough to resist a violent
storm, which broke it to pieces soon after it was finished. How far this disaster
was owing to defects in its construction, which might have been avoided by ordinary
skill and foresight, does not appear; but Xerxes is said to have been so much
angered by the accident that he put the architects to death. Such a burst of passion
would be credible enough in itself, and is only rendered doubtful by the extravagant
fables that gained credit on the subject among the Greeks, who, in the bridging
of the sacred Hellespont, saw the beginning of a long career of audacious impiety,
and gradually transformed the fastenings with which the passage was finally secured
into fetters and scourges with which the barbarian, in his madness, had thought
to chastise the aggression of the rebellious stream. The construction of new bridges
was committed to other engineers, perhaps to Greeks; but their names have not
come down, like that of Mandrocles. By their skill two broad causeways were made
to stretch from the neighbourhood of Abydus to a projecting point on the opposite
shore of the Chersonesus, resting each on a row of ships, which were stayed against
the strong current that bore upon them from the north by anchors and by cables
fastened to both sides of the channel. The length was not far short of a mile.
When all was in readiness the mighty armament was set in motion.
Early in the spring (B.C. 480) Xerxes began his march from
Sardis, in all the pomp of a royal progress. The baggage led the way: it was followed
by the first division of the armed crowd that had been brought together from the
tributary nations; a motley throng, including many strange varieties of complexion,
dress, and language, commanded by Thessalian generals, but retaining each tribe
its national armour and mode of fighting. An interval was then left, after which
came 1000 picked Persian cavalry, followed by an equal number of spearsmen, whose
lances, which they carried with the points turned downward, ended in knobs of
gold. Next, ten sacred horses, of the Nisaean breed, were led in gorgeous trappings,
preceding the chariot of the Persian Zeus, drawn by eight white horses, the driver
following on foot. Then came the royal chariot, also drawn by Nisaean horses,
in which Xerxes sat in state; but from time to time he exchanged it for an easier
carriage, which sheltered him from the sun and changes of the weather. He was
followed by two bands of horse and foot, like those which went immediately before
him, and by a body of 10,000 Persian infantry, the flower of the whole army, who
were called the Immortals, because their number was kept constantly full. A thousand
of them, who occupied the outer ranks, bore lances tipped with gold; those of
the rest were similarly ornamented with silver. They were followed by an equal
number of Persian cavalry. The remainder of the host brought up the rear. In this
order the army reached Abydus, and Xerxes, from a lofty throne, surveyed the crowded
sides and bosom of the Hellespont, and a sort of mimic sea-fight; a spectacle
which Herodotus might well think sufficient to have moved him with a touch of
human sympathy. The passage did not begin before the king had prayed to the rising
sun, and had tried to propitiate the Hellespont itself by libations, and by casting
into it golden vessels and a sword. After the bridges had been strewed with myrtle
and purified with incense, the ten thousand Immortals, crowned with chaplets,
led the way. The army crossed by one bridge, the baggage by the other; yet the
living tide flowed without intermission for seven days and seven nights before
the last man, as Herodotus heard, the king himself, the tallest and most majestic
person in the host, had arrived on the European shore. In the great plain of Doriscus,
on the banks of Hebrus, an attempt was made to number the land force. A space
was enclosed large enough to contain 10,000 men; into this the myriads were successively
poured and discharged, till the whole mass had been rudely counted. They were
then drawn up according to their natural divisions, and Xerxes rode in his chariot
along the ranks, while the royal scribes recorded the names, and most likely the
equipments, of the different races. The real military strength of the armament
was almost lost among the undisciplined hordes who could only impede its movements
as well as consume its stores. The Persians were the core of both the land and
the sea force; none of the other troops are said to have equalled them in discipline
or in courage; and the 24,000 men who guarded the royal person were the flower
of the whole nation. Yet these were much better fitted for show than for action;
and of the rest, we hear that they were distinguished from the mass of the army,
not only by their superior order and valour, but also by the abundance of gold
they displayed, by the train of carriages, women, and servants that followed them,
and by the provisions set apart for their use.
Marching through Thrace and Macedonia, Xerxes met no resistance
until he reached the Pass of Thermopylae between Mount Oeta and the sea. This
the Spartan king Leonidas, with about 7000 men, had occupied. For two days they
beat back the huge masses of Persians who assailed the pass, but whose very numbers
proved an impediment to their success. Even the Immortals were unsuccessful, and
Xerxes, who was watching the battle, leaped thrice from his throne in his rage.
Presently, however, by the treachery of a Malian named Ephialtes, a body of Persian
troops was led by a secret path to the rear of the Greeks. Leonidas at once dismissed
all his men except his immediate guard of 300 Spartans and a body of Thespians,
and with these advanced into the plain and perished after an heroic struggle (B.C.
480). Meantime a storm had wrecked 400 of the Persian ships of war, and an indecisive
naval battle had been fought off Artemisium. Xerxes occupied Athens, pillaged
the Acropolis, but suffered a great naval defeat at Salamis, where 200 of his
ships were sunk.
After this disastrous defeat at Salamis, Xerxes felt desirous
of escaping from a state of things which was now becoming troublesome and dangerous,
and Mardonius saw that he would gladly listen to any proposal that would facilitate
his return. He was aware that, without a fleet, the war might probably be tedious,
in which case the immense bulk of the present army would be only an encumbrance,
from the difficulty of subsisting it. Besides, the ambition of Mardonius was flattered
with the idea of his becoming the conqueror of Greece, while he feared that, if
he now returned, he might be made answerable for the ill success of the expedition
which he had advised. He therefore proposed to Xerxes to return into Asia with
the body of the army, leaving himself, with 300,000 of the best troops, to complete
the conquest of Greece. Xerxes assented, and, the army having retired into Boeotia,
Mardonius made his selection, and then, accompanying the king into Thessaly, there
parted from him, leaving him to pursue his march towards Asia, while he himself
prepared to winter in Thessaly and Macedonia.
Widely different from the appearance of the glittering host,
which a few months before had advanced over the plains of Macedonia and Thrace
to the conquest of Greece, was the aspect of the crowd which was now hurrying
back along the same road. The splendour, the pomp, the luxury, the waste, were
exchanged for disaster and distress, want and disease. The magazines had been
emptied by the careless profusion or peculation of those who had the charge of
them; the granaries of the countries traversed by the retreating multitude were
unable to supply its demands; ordinary food was often not to be found; and it
was compelled to draw a scanty and unwholesome nourishment from the herbage of
the plains, the bark and leaves of the trees. Sickness soon began to spread its
ravages among them, and Xerxes was compelled to consign numbers to the care of
the cities that lay on his road, already impoverished by the cost of his first
visit, in the hope that they would tend their guests, and would not sell them
into slavery if they recovered. The passage of the Strymon is said to have been
peculiarly disastrous. The river had been frozen in the night hard enough to bear
those who arrived first. But the ice suddenly gave way under the heat of the morning
sun, and numbers perished in the waters. It is a little surprising that Herodotus,
when he is describing the miseries of the retreat, does not notice this disaster,
which is so prominent in the narrative of the Persian messenger in Aeschylus.
There can, however, be no doubt as to the fact; and perhaps it may furnish a useful
warning not to lay too much stress on the silence of Herodotus, as a ground for
rejecting even important and interesting facts which are only mentioned by later
writers, though such as he must have heard of, and might have been expected to
relate. It seems possible that the story he mentions of Xerxes embarking at Eion
may have arisen out of the tragical passage of the Strymon.
In forty-five days after he had left Mardonius in Thessaly,
he reached the Hellespont; the bridges had been broken up by foul weather, but
the fleet was there to carry the army over to Abydus. Here it rested from its
fatigues, and found plentiful quarters; but intemperate indulgence rendered the
sudden change from scarcity to abundance almost as deadly as the previous famine.
The remnant that Xerxes brought back to Sardis was a wreck, a fragment, rather
than a part of his huge host.
The history of Xerxes, after the termination of his Grecian
campaign, may be comprised in a brief compass. He gave himself up to a life of
dissolute pleasure, and was slain by Artabanus, a captain of the royal guards,
B.C. 464.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Xerxes became king of Persia at the death of his father Darius the
Great in 485, at a time when his father was preparing a new expedition against
Greece and had to face an
uprising in Egypt. According
to Herodotus, the transition was peaceful this time. Because he was about to leave
for Egypt, Darius, following
the law of his country had been requested to name his successor and to choose
between the elder of his sons, born from a first wife before he was in power,
and the first of his sons born after he became king, from a second wife, Atossa,
Cyrus' daughter, who had earlier been successively wed to her brothers Cambyses
and Smerdis, and which he had married soon after reaching power in order to confirm
his legitimacy. Atossa was said to have much power on Darius and he chose her
son Xerxes for successor.
After quelling the revolt of Egypt,
Xerxes finally decided to pursue the project of his father to subdue Greece,
but made lengthy preparations for that. Among other things, remembering what had
happened to Mardonius' expedition a few years earlier (his fleet had been destroyed
by a tempest in 492 while trying to round Mount
Athos), he ordered a channel to be opened for his fleet north of Mount
Athos in Chalcidice.
He also had two boat bridges built over the Hellespont
near Abydus for his troop
to cross the straits.
The expedition was ready to move in the spring of 480 and Xerxes himself
took the lead. Herodotus gives us a colorful description of the Persian army that
he evaluates at close to two million men and about twelve hundred ships. Modern
historians find these figures irrealistic, if only for logistical reasons, and
suppose the army was at most two hundred thousand men and the fleet no more than
a thousand ships, but this still makes an impressive body for the time. Xerxes'
expedition moved by land and sea through Thracia,
the fleet following the army along the coast. It didn't meet resistance until
it reached Thessalia, where
the Persian army defeated the Spartans and their allies at the pass of Thermopylae
while, on sea, neither the Persian nor the Athenian fleet could win the decision
in the battle that took place near Cape Artemisium,
along the northern coast of the island of Euboea.
Because of Themistocles' decision to evacuate Athens,
Xerxes managed to take the city and set fire to the temples of the Acropolis,
but his fleet was soon after destroyed by the Athenian fleet of Themistocles at
the battle of Salamis. After
this defeat, Xerxes returned to Asia via the Hellespont,
leaving part of his army in Greece
under the command of Mardonius. But the following year, after having taken Athens
a second time, the Persian army was defeated, in September of 479, at Plataea,
near Thebes in Boeotia,
in a battle that lasted 13 days, in which Mardonius was killed while, at about
the same time, what remained of the Persian fleet was destroyed by a Greek fleet
under the command of the Spartan general Leutychides off Cape
Mycale, a promontory of the Ionian coast, north of Miletus,
facing the island of Samos.
This was not the end of the war between Persia and Greece,
but it was the end of the incursions of the Persian army on mainland Greece.
And without a fleet, Persia had to abandon control of the sea to Athens.
Xerxes died in 465, assassinated probably upon order by one of his
sons, Artaxerxes, who succeeded him.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Amastris or Amestris. The wife of Xerxes, and mother of Artaxerxes I. According
to Herocotus, she was the daughter of Otanes, according to Ctesias, who calls
her Amistris, of Onophas. She was cruel and vindictive. On one occasion she sacrificed
fourteen youths of the noblest Persian families to the god said to dwell beneath
the earth. The tale of her horrible mutilation of the wife of Masistes, recorded
by Herodotus, gives us a lively picture of the intrigues and cruelties of a Persian
harem. She survived Xerxes (Herod. vii. 61, 114, ix. 108-113; Ctesias, Persic.
c. 20. 30; Plut. Alcib).
Artaxerxes I., surnamed Longimanus (Makrocheir) from the circumstance of his right hand being longer than his left (Plut. Artax. 1), was king of Persia for forty years, from B. C. 465 to B. C. 425 (Diod. xi. 69, xii. 64; Thuc. iv. 50). He ascended the throne after his father, Xerxes I., had been murdered by Artabanus, and after he himself had put to death his brother Darcius on the instigation of Artabanus. His reign is characterized by Plutarch and Diodorus (xi. 71) as wise and temperate, but it was disturbed by several dangerous insurrections of the satraps. At the time of his accession his only surviving brother Hystaspes was satrap of Bactria, and Artaxerxes had scarcely punished Artabanus and his associates, before Hystaspes attempted to make himself independent. After putting down this insurrection and deposing several other satraps who refused to obey his commands, Artaxerxes turned his attention to the regulation of the financial and military affairs of his empire. These beneficent exertions were interrupted in B. C. 462, or, according to Clinton, in B. C. 460, by the insurrection of the Egyptians under Inarus, who was supported by the Athenians. The first army which Artaxerxes sent under his brother Achaemenes was defeated, and Achaemenes slain. After a useless attempt to incite the Spartans to a war against Athens, Artaxerxes sent a second army under Artabazus and Megabyzus into Egypt. A remnant of the forces of Achaemenes, who were still besieged in a place called the white castle (leukon teichos), near Memphis, was relieved, and the fleet of the Athenians destroyed by the Athenians themselves, who afterwards quitted Egypt. Inarus, too, was defeated in B. C. 456 or 455, but Amyrtaeus, another chief of the insurgents, maintained himself in the marshes of lower Egypt (Thuc. i. 104, 109; Diod. xi. 71, 74, 77). In B. C. 449, Cimon sent 60 of his fleet of 300 ships to the assistance of Amyrtaeus, and with the rest endeavoured to wrest Cyprus from the Persians. Notwithstanding the death of Cimon, the Athenians gained two victories, one by land and the other by sea, in the neigbourhood of Salamis in Cyprus. After this defeat Artaxerxes is said to have commanded his generals to conclude peace with the Greeks on any terms. The conditions on which this peace is said to have been concluded are as follows: -that the Greek towns in Asia should be restored to perfect independence; that no Persian satrap should approach the western coast of Asia nearer than the distance of a three days' journey; and that no Persian ship should sail through the Bosporus, or pass the town of Phaselis or the Chelidonian islands on the coast of Lycia (Diod. xii. 4). Thucydides knows nothing of this humiliating peace, and it seems in fact to have been fabricated in the age subsequent to the events to which it relates. Soon after these occurrences Megabyzus revolted in Syria, because Artaxerxes had put Inarus to death contrary to the promise which Megabyzus had made to Inarus, when he made him his prisoner. Subsequently, however, Megabyzus became reconciled to his master. Artaxerxes appears to have passed the latter years of his reign in peace. On his death in B. C. 425, he was succeeded by his son Xerxes II.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dareius II., was named Ochus (Ochos) before his accession, and was then surnamed Nothus (Nothos),
from his being one of the seventeen bastard sons of Artaxerxes I. Longimanus,
who made him satrap of Hyrcania, and gave him in marriage his sister Parysatis,
the daughter of Xerxes I. When Sogdianus, another bastard son of Artaxerxes, had
murdered the king, Xerxes II., he called Ochus to his court. Ochus promised to
go. but delayed till he had collected a large army, and then he declared war against
Sogdianus. Arbarius, the commander of the royal cavalry, Arxames, the satrap of
Egypt, and Artoxares, the satrap of Armenia, deserted to him, and placed the diadem
upon his lead, according to Ctesias, against his will, B. C. 424-423. Sogdianus
gave himself up to Ochus, and was put to death. Ochus now assumed the name of
Dareius. He was completely under the power of three eunuchs, Artoxares, Artibarxanes,
and Athoiis, and of his wife, Parysatis, by whom, before his accession, he had
two children, a daughter Amistris, and a son Arsaces, who succeeded him by the
name of Artaxerxes (II. Mnemon). After his accession, Parysatis bore him a son,
Cyrus the Younger, and a daughter, Artosta. He had other children, all of whom
died early, except his fourth son, Oxendras (Ctes. 49). Plutarch, quoting Ctesias
for his authority, calls the four sons of Dareius and Parysatis, Arsicas (afterwards
Artaxerxes), Cyrus, Ostanes, and Oxathres (Artax. I).
The weakness of Dareius's government was soon shewn by repeated insurrections.
First his brother Arsites revolted, with Artyphius, the son of Megabyzus. Their
Greek mercenaries, in whom their strengh consisted, were bought off by the royal
general Artasyras, and they themselves were taken prisoners by treachery, and,
at the instigation of Parysatis, they were put to death by fire. The rebellion
of Pisuthnes had precisely a similar result. (B. C. 414). A plot of Artoxares,
the chief eunuch, was crushed in the bud; but a more formidable and lasting danger
soon shewed itself in the rebellion of Egypt under Amyrtaeus, who in B. C. 414
expelled the Persians front Egypt, and reigned there six years, and at whose death
(B. C. 408) Dareius was obliged to recognise his son Pausiris as his successor;
for at the same time the Medes revolted: they were, however, soon subdued. Dareius
died in the year 405-404 B. C., and was succeeded by his eldest son Artaxerxes
II. The length of his reign is differently stated: it was really 19 years. Respecting
his relations to Greece, see Cyrus, Lysander, Tissaphernes. (Ctes. Pers. 44-56;
Diod. xii. 71, xiii. 36, 70, 108; Xen. Hell. i. 2.19, ii. 1.8, Anab. i. l.1; Nehem.
xii. 22)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artaxerxes. Surnamed Mnemon, from his good memory, succeeded his father, Darius II., and reigned B.C. 405-359. Respecting the war between him and his brother Cyrus, see Cyrus. Tissaphernes was appointed satrap of Western Asia in the place of Cyrus, and was actively engaged in wars with the Greeks. Artaxerxes had to carry on frequent wars with tributary princes and satraps, who endeavoured to make themselves independent. Thus he maintained a long struggle against Evagoras of Cyprus, from 385 to 376; and his attempts to recover Egypt were unsuccessful. Towards the end of his reign he put to death his eldest son Darius, who had formed a plot to assassinate him. His last days were still further embittered by the unnatural conduct of his son Ochus, who caused the destruction of two of his brothers, in order to secure the succession for himself. Artaxerxes was succeeded by Ochus, who ascended the throne under the name of Artaxerxes III.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artaxerxes II., surnamed Mnemon from his good memory, succeeded his father, Dareius II., as king
of Persia, and reigned from B. C. 405 to B. C. 362 (Diod. xiii. 104, 108). Cyrus,
the younger brother of Artaxerxes, was the favourite of his mother Parysatis,
and she endeavoured to obtain the throne for him; but Dareius gave to Cyrus only
the satrapy of western Asia, and Artaxerxes on his accession confirmed his brother
in his satrapy, on the request of Parysatis, although he suspected him (Xenoph.
Anab. i. 1.3; Plut. Artax. 3). Cyrus, however, revolted against his brother, and
supported by Greek mercenaries invaded Upper Asia. In the neighbourhood of Cunaxa,
Cyrus gained a great victory over the far more numerous army of his brother, but
was slain in the battle. Tissaphernes was appointed satrap of western Asia in
the place of Cyrus (Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 1.3), and was actively engaged in wars
with the Greeks.
Notwithstanding these perpetual conflicts with the Greeks, the Persian
empire maintained itself by the disunion among the Greeks themselves, which was
fomented and kept up by Persian money. The peace of Antalcidas, in B. C. 388,
gave the Persians even greater power and influence than they had possessed before.
But the empire was suffering from internal disturbances and confusion: Artaxerxes
himself was a weak man; his mother, Parysatis, carried on her horrors at the court
with truly oriental cruelty; and slaves and eunuchs wielded the reins of government.
Tributary countries and satraps endeavoured, under such circumstances, to make
themselves independent, and the exertions which it was necessary to make against
the rebels exhausted the strength of the empire. Artaxerxes thus had to maintain
a long struggle against Evagoras of Cyprus, from B. C. 385 to B. C. 376, and yet
all he could gain was to confine Evagoras to his original possession, the town
of Salamis and its vicinity, and to compel him to pay a moderate tribute (Diod.
xv. 9). At the same time he had to carry on war against the Cardusians, on the
shores of the Caspian sea; and after his numerous army was with great difficulty
saved from total destruction, he concluded a peace without gaining any advantages
(Diod. xv. 9, 10; Plut. Artax. 24). His attempts to recover Egypt were unsuccessful,
and the general insurrection of his subjects in Asia Minor failed only through
treachery among the insurgents themselves (Diod. xv. 90, &c.). When Artaxerxes
felt that the end of his life was approaching, he endeavoured to prevent all quarrels
respecting the succession by fixing upon Dareius, the eldest of his three legitimate
sons (by his concubines he had no less than 115 sons, Justin. x. 1), as his successor,
and granted to him all the outward distinctions of royalty. But Dareius soon after
fell out with his father about Aspasia, and formed a plot to assassinate him.
But the plot was betrayed, and Dareius was put to death with many of his accomplices
(Plut. Artax. 26). Of the two remaining legitimate sons, Ochus and Ariaspes, the
former now hoped to succeed his father; but as Ariaspes was beloved by the Persians
on account of his gentle and amiable character, and as the aged Artaxerxes appeared
to prefer Arsames, the son of one of his concubines, Ochus contrived by intrigues
to drive Ariaspes to despair and suicide, and had Arsames assassinated. Artaxerxes
died of grief at these horrors in B. C. 362, and was succeeded by Ochus, who ascended
the throne under the name of Artaxerxes III. (Plut. Life of Artaxerxes; Diod.
xv. 93)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Amastris. A daughter of Artaxerxes II., whom her father promised in marriage to Teribazus. Instead of fulfilling his promise, he married her himself. (Plut. Artax. c. 27)
Cyrus the Younger, the second of the four sons of Dareius Nothus, king of Persia, and of Parysatis, was appointed by his father commander (karanos or strategos) of the maritime parts of Asia Minor,and satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia (B. C. 407). He carried with him a large sum of money to aid the Lacedaemonians in the Peloponnesian war, and by the address of Lysander he was induced to help them even more than his father had commissioned him to do. The bluntness of Callicratidas caused him to withdraw his aid, but on the return of Lysander to the command it was renewed with the greatest liberality. There is no doubt that Cyrus was already meditating the attempt to succeed his father on the throne of Persia, and that he sought through Lysander to provide for aid from Sparta. Cyrus, indeed, betrayed his ambitious spirit, by putting to death two Persians of the blood royal, for not observing in his presence a usage which was only due to the king. It was probably for this reason, and not only on account of his own ill health, that Dareius summoned Cyrus to his presence (B. C. 405). Before leaving Sardis, Cyrus sent for Lysander and assigned to him his revenues for the prosecution of the war. He then went to his father, attended by a body of 500 Greek mercenaries, and taking with him Tissaphernes, nominally as a mark of honour, but really for fear of what he might do in his absence. He arrived in Media just in time to witness his father's death and the accession of his elder brother, Artaxerxes Mnemon (B. C. 404), though his mother, Parysatis, whose favourite son Cyrus was, had endeavored to persuade Dareius to appoint him as his successor, on the ground that he had been born after, but his brother Artaxerxes before, the accession of Dareius. This attempt, of course, excited the jealousy of Artaxerxes, which was further enflamed by information from Tissaphernes, that Cyrus was plotting against his life. Artaxerxes, therefore, arrested his brother and condemned him to death; but, on the intercession of Parysatis, he spared his life and sent him back to his satrapy. Cyrus now gave himself up to the design of dethroning his brother. By his affability and by presents, he endeavoured to corrupt those of the Persians who past between the court of Artaxerxes and his own; but he relied chiefly on a force of Greek mercenaries, which he raised on the pretext that he was in danger from the hostility of Tissaphernes. When his preparations were complete, he commenced his expedition against Babylon, giving out, however, even to his own soldiers, that he was only marching against the robbers of Pisidia. When the Greeks learnt his real purpose, they found that they were too far committed to him to draw back. He set out from Sardis in the spring of B. C. 401, and, having marched through Phrygia and Cilicia, entered Syria through the celebrated passes near Issus, crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus, and marched down the river to the plain of Cunaxa, 500 stadia from Babylon. Artaxerxes had been informed by Tissaphernes of his designs, and was prepared to meet him. The numbers of the two armies are variously stated. Artaxerxes had from 400,000 to a million of men; Cyrus had about 100,000 Asiatics and 13,000 Greeks. The battle was at first altogether in favour of Cyrus. His Greek troops on the right routed the Asiatics who were opposed to them; and he himself pressed forward in the centre against his brother, and had even wounded him, when he was killed by one of the king's body-guard. Artaxerxes caused his head and right hand to be struck off, and sought to have it believed that Cyrus had fallen by his hand. Parysatis took a cruel revenge on the suspected slayers and mutilators of her son. The details of the expedition of Cyrus and of the events which followed his death may be read in Xenophon's Anabasis. This attempt of an ambitious young prince to usurp his brother's throne led ultimately to the greatest results, for by it the path into the centre of the Persian empire was laid open to the Greeks, and the way was prepared for the conquests of Alexander. The character of Cyrus is drawn by Xenophon in the brightest colours. It is enough to say that his ambition was gilded by all those brilliant qualities which win men's hearts (Xenophon, Hellen. i. 4, 5, ii. 1, iii. 1, Anab. i., Cyrop. viii. 8.3, Oecon. iv. 16, 18, 21; Ctesias, Persica, i. 44, 49, Fr. li., lii., liii., liv., lvii.; Isocr. Panath. 39; Plut. Lys. 4, 9; Artax. 3, 6, 13-17; Diod. xiii. 70, 104, xiv. 6, 11, 12, 19, 20, 22).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artaxerxes, also called Ochus, succeeded his father as king of Persia in B. C.
362, and reigned till B. C. 339. In order to secure the throne which he had gained
by treason and murder, he began his reign with a merciless extirpation of the
members of his family. He himself was a cowardly and reckless despot; and the
great advantages which the Persian arms gained during his reign, were owing only
to his Greek generals and mercenaries, and to traitors, or want of skill on the
part of his enemies. These advantages consisted in the conquest of the revolted
satrap Artabazus, and in the reduction of Phoenicia, of several revolted towns
in Cyprus, and of Egypt, B. C. 350 (Diod. xvi. 40-52). From this time Artaxerxes
withdrew to his seraglio, where he passed his days in sensual pleasures. The reins
of the government were entirely in the hands of the eunuch Bagoas, and of Mentor,
the Rhodian, and the existence of the king himself was felt by his subjects only
in the bloody commands which he issued. At last he was killed by poison by Bagoas,
and was succeeded by his youngest son, Arses (Diod. xvii. 5; Plut. De Is. et Os.
11; Aelian, V. H. iv. 8, vi. 8, H. A. x. 28; Justin, x. 3)
Arses, Narses or Oarses, the youngest son of king Artaxerxes III. (Ochus). After the eunuch Bagoas had poisoned Artaxerxes, he raised Arses to the throne, B. C. 339; and that he might have the young king completely under his power, he caused the king's brothers to be put to death; but one of them, Bisthanes, appears to have escaped their fate (Arrian, Anab. iii. 19). Arses, however, could but ill brook the indignities committed against his own family, and the bondage in which he himself was kept; and as soon as Bagoas perceived that the king was disposed to take vengeance, he had him and his children too put to death, in the third year of his reign. The royal house appears to have been thus destroyed with the exception of the above-mentioned Bisthanes, and Bagoas raised Dareius Codomannus to the throne (Diod. xvii. 5; Strab. xv.; Plut. de Fort. Alex. ii. 3, Artax. 1; Arrian, Anab. ii. 14; Ctesias, Pers.).
Dareius III., named Codomannus before his accession, was the son of Arsames, the son of Ostanes, a brother of Artaxerxes II. His mother Sisygambis was the daughter of Artaxerxes. In a war against the Cadusii he killed a powerful warrior in single combat, and was rewarded by the king, Artaxerxes Ochus, with the satrapy of Armenia. He was raised to the throne by Bagoas, after the murder of Arses (B. C. 336), in which some accused him of a share; but this accusation is inconsistent with the universal testimony borne to the mildness and excellence of his character, by which he was as much distinguished as by his personal beauty. He rid himself of Bagoas, whom he punished for all his crimes by compelling him to drink poison. Codomannus had not, however, the qualities nor the power to oppose the impetuous career of the Macedonian king. The Persian empire ended with his death, in B. C. 330. (Diod. xvii. 5, &c.; Justin, x. 3)
Son of Darius, an officer in Xerxes' army, a Persian, father of Mardonius.
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