PHARNAZATHRES who was a commander in XERXES’ invasion force of 480 BCE (7.65).
SEE ALSO: Persia
FURTHER READING
1 Balcer, Jack Martin. 1993. A Prosopographical Study of the Ancient Persians Royal and Noble c. 550–450 B.C., 64. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
ARTABAZUS (Ἀρτάβαζος, ὁ) father of Tritantaechmes
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Patronymic, father of the Persian Tritantaechmes whom Herodotus names as a satrap of BABYLON (1.192.2). This Artabazus is not believed to be the same man as XERXES’ prominent general (e.g., 8.126), the son of PHARNACES and later satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia.
SEE ALSO: Artabazus son of Pharnaces; Satrapies; Tritantaechmes son of Artabazus
ARTABAZUS (Ἀρτάβαζος, ὁ) son of Pharnaces
REINHOLD BICHLER
University of Innsbruck
Perian commander and later satrap. He led a campaign in Thracian Chalcidice in 480 BCE and escaped the Persian defeat at PLATAEA in 479. Herodotus highlights Artabazus’ esteem among the Persians (8.126.1; 9.41.1), but his portrayal is ambiguous. Artabazus led the PARTHIANS and CHORASMIANS in XERXES’ land army (7.66). After the Battle of SALAMIS, he escorted the king back to the HELLESPONT with 60,000 men (8.126), then turned to the PALLENE peninsula, in order to maintain Persian control there. He besieged POTEIDAEA and conquered OLYNTHUS, which was in the possession of the BOTTIAEANS. They were massacred and the city was handed over to CRITOBULUS OF TORONE. Artabazus’ attempt at taking Poteidaea by TREACHERY (see TIMOXEINUS) failed. Moreover, most of his soldiers perished in a flood, allegedly because they had profaned a sanctuary of POSEIDON (8.126–29). In spring 479, Artabazus acts as wise adviser in MARDONIUS’ camp, but the latter neglects his proposal to bribe Greek leaders and avoid a battle (9.41–42.1, 58). While Mardonius’ army was crushed at Plataea, Artabazus was able to escape with 40,000 soldiers (9.66, 77), though he lost many of these in THRACE during his retreat to ASIA (9.89).
Other sources testify to Artabazus’ subsequent career. He was appointed satrap of Hellespontine PHRYGIA and led negotiations with the Spartan PAUSANIAS (Thuc. 1.129; Diod. Sic. 11.44.4). Under ARTAXERXES I, he fought in EGYPT and CYPRUS and conducted negotiations with ATHENS (Diod. Sic. 11.74–75; 12.3). Artabazus’ descendants held the satrapy for generations.
SEE ALSO: Advisers; Artabazus father of Tritantaechmes; Bribery; Chalcidians in Thrace; Dascyleium; Pharnaces; Satrapies
FURTHER READING
1 Balcer, Jack Martin. 1993. A Prosopographical Study of the Ancient Persians Royal and Noble c. 550–450 B.C., 84–85. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
2 Briant, Pierre. 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, translated by Peter T. Daniels, 530–31. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
3 Flower, Michael A., and John Marincola, eds. 2002. Herodotus: Histories Book IX, 181–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, IPGL, 97–99 (no. 56b).
ARTACE (Ἀρτάκη, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A city west of CYZICUS on Arctonnesus (“Bear island,” now Kapıdağı peninsula) off the Mysian coast of PROPONTIS (BA 52 B4), identified with modern‐day Erdek (Müller II, 785–87). Artace, a colony of MILETUS (Strabo 14.1.6/C635), was in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE an independent POLIS. Herodotus reports that it was burned by the Persians in the final year of the IONIAN REVOLT (493 BCE), while nearby Cyzicus was unharmed due to its agreement to become a subject of the king (6.33.2–3). Artace was subsequently rebuilt, as it became a member of the DELIAN LEAGUE and appears numerous times in the Athenian Tribute Lists.
At the same time, Artace served as an important harbor and access point to Cyzicus. In Herodotus’ story of ARISTEAS OF PROCONNESUS, it is at Artace that Aristeas is spotted, by a man on his way to Cyzicus, on the same day that the sage was reported to have died (4.14.1). At some point after 400 BCE, Artace must have been incorporated into Cyzicus: later authors for the most part mention the harbor and the mountain which protected it, but not the city (Strabo 12.8.11/C576; Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἀρτάκη (A 457); Plin. HN 5.141 (but cf. 5.151 and Ps.‐Scylax 94)).
SEE ALSO: Harbors; Oebares son of Megabazus
FURTHER READING
1 Hasluck, F. W. 1910. Cyzicus, 16–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
IACP no. 736 (977).
ARTACHAEES (Ἀρταχαίης, ὁ)
PIETRO VANNICELLI
Università di Roma–La Sapienza
An ACHAEMENID highly regarded by XERXES, who together with BUBARES was in charge of the construction of the CANAL across the ATHOS peninsula (7.22.2). Artachaees was the tallest of the Persians and the man with the loudest voice of all mankind. When he died of DISEASE in ACANTHUS, the whole Persian army built his burial mound. On oracular advice the Acanthians instituted a hero‐cult for Artachaees, invoking him by name (7.117). OTASPES, commander of the ASSYRIANS during Xerxes’ expedition against Greece in 480 BCE (7.63.1), and ARTAŸNTES, admiral of the Persian fleet at MYCALE in 479 (8.130.2), may have been sons of this same Artachaees (Schmitt, IPGL 118 (no. 76)).
SEE ALSO: Artaeus; Burial Customs; Engineering; Heroes and Hero Cult
ARTAEANS (Ἀρταῖοι, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
At the beginning of his CATALOGUE of XERXES’ invasion force, Herodotus states that the Persians first called themselves Artaeans, though the Greeks called them Cephenes; they later adopted the name “Persians” from PERSES, son of PERSEUS and ANDROMEDA (7.61.2–3). Hellanicus appears to have given similar information (cf. Pearson 1939, 204–5); after citing Hellanicus for a region of PERSIA called Artaea, Stephen of Byzantium writes, “The Persians call ancient men Artaeans, just as the Greeks call them HEROES” (s.v. Ἀρταία (A 456) = BNJ 4 F60). The Old Persian root *ṛta‐ meant “justice, truth, proper order,” whence the many attested names beginning Arta‐ (Tavernier 2007, 542–43).
SEE ALSO: Artaeus; Cepheus; Myth
REFERENCES
1 Pearson, Lionel. 1939. Early Ionian Historians. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2 Tavernier,
