Artaphernes

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Artaphernes (also Artaphrenes ; medically: Rtafarnah ; † after 486/85 BC) was a Persian governor of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. As the son of Hystaspes and younger brother of the Great King Darius I , he was himself a member of the Achaemenid dynasty. He had a son of the same name .

Life

Ionic Uprising Map.

Artaphernes was born by his brother shortly after the Scythian procession around the year 513 BC. Appointed satrap of the Asian Aegean coast and adjacent parts of Asia Minor with the residence of Sardis . Soon after the tyrant Hippias was expelled from Athens and Kleisthenes was installed , Athenian ambassadors came to Artaphernes in 506 BC to ask him for help against Sparta . For such support, Artaphernes called for earth and water to be given to the Persian king, which was the usual gesture of recognition of Persian suzerainty. The delegates agreed at their own risk, but their concession was rejected after their return from Athens. When the overthrown tyrant Hippias appeared in Asia Minor, he worked on Artaphernes to restore him to his previous position of power. The Athenians found out about this and sent another embassy to Sardis to dissuade the satrap from intervening in favor of Hippias. Artaphernes demanded, under threats of punishment, that Hippias should be taken back to Athens. However, the Attic demos refused to comply with this demand and acknowledged his anti-Persian attitude.

In the year 500/499 BC Chr. Was Artaphernes of Aristagoras , the tyrant of Miletus , an attack on Naxos , pushed to the above by the local demos sold oligarchs due. Artaphernes saw this as a way of bringing the Cyclades under Persian rule. After he had received the approval of Dareios I for this enterprise, he equipped a fleet of 200 triremes , to whose commander he appointed his cousin Megabates . Despite a four-month siege, the Persians failed to take Naxos, mainly because Megabates and Aristagoras had quarreled among themselves.

Because of this failure, Aristagoras feared punishment from the great king. In order to forestall this and allegedly irritated by a message from his father-in-law Histiaios , who was then held by Darius in Susa , Aristagoras fell in 499 BC. From Persia and organized the Ionian uprising . The Ionians conquered in 498 BC. BC Sardis, but Artaphernes was able to entrench himself with strong troops in the city castle and defend it successfully against the rebels. Sardis himself was burned by the insurgents, who, however, soon withdrew for fear of the arrival of Persian troops. In their counteroffensive, the Persians triumphed over the retreating Ionians at Ephesus . 497 BC Artaphernes and Otanes were commissioned to suppress the revolt in Ionia and Aeolia . The two generals succeeded in taking Klazomenai and Kyme . This forced Aristagoras to flee from Miletus to Thrace .

In the meantime, Histaios knew how to dispel the suspicion of the Persian great king that he had contributed to the Ionian uprising and even managed to get Darius to him around 496 BC. Sent to Ionia to fight the insurgents. Artaphernes, however, mistrusted Histaios and at a meeting in Sardis made him jointly responsible for the Ionian uprising, since Histaios had sewn the shoe that Aristagoras had put on. Histiaios therefore fled to Chios , stayed in contact with some Persians who lived in Sardis and were hostile to Artaphernes by means of correspondence and tried to incite them to revolt. Instead, Histaios' letters were brought to the attention of Artaphernes, who had the traitors executed. 493 BC Chr. Histaios got into the captivity of the Persian general Harpagos , who brought him to Sardis. Artaphernes had Histaios crucified immediately to prevent him from finding grace again with Darius I, and to deliver his head to the great king. Dareios is said to have disapproved of the execution of Histaios.

After the end of the Ionian uprising, Artaphernes called in 493 BC. A congress of representatives of all Ionian cities in Sardis. He forced them to sign treaties with each other, regulating processes between people in different cities, measuring their territories and re-imposing the tributes, but at about the same level as the cities had had to pay before the uprising. The extent of the tribute determined by Artaphernes was still valid at the time of the historian Herodotus . Hecataus of Miletus is said to have appointed Artaphernes as the Ionians' envoy to be content with moderate tributes and to allow the cities their own laws. Artaphernes still lived in 486/85 BC. When he supported the succession of Xerxes I against the claim to the throne of Ariamenes .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus , Historíai 5:25 .
  2. ^ Herodotus, Historíai 5, 73.
  3. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai 5, 96.
  4. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai 5, 30-34.
  5. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai 5, 35 and 100.
  6. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai 5, 123.
  7. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai 5, 106 f.
  8. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai 6, 1-4.
  9. ↑ Herodotus, Historía 6, 30.
  10. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 6, 42.
  11. ^ Diodor , Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 10, 25, 2.
  12. ^ Justinus , Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 2, 10, 9.
personal data
SURNAME Artaphernes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rtafarnah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Satrap of all Ionia
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC Chr.