Atropates

Atropates ( Greek : Ατροπατης, old Pers . : Atarepata ) was under the Persian great king Dareios III. Satrap of media .

When Alexander the Great in 331 BC Atropates was in command of both the Median troops and auxiliary contingents of the Kadusians , Albanians and Sakesinians , peoples who settled north of Medien in what is now Azerbaijan. In the battle of Gaugamela the Persian army suffered a decisive defeat against the Macedonians . Nevertheless, after the death of Darius, Alexander decided to fall back on tried and tested Persian executives to help set up the administration, much to the displeasure of many of his Macedonian fighters. In this context, Atropates was also entrusted with the administration of the satrapy media. Beginning of 324 BC Atropates brought the usurper Baryaxes, whom he had overcome, to Pasargadai to see Alexander, who had Baryaxes executed. As part of Alexander's Macedonian-Persian merger policy, Atropates' daughter was born in 324 BC. Married to Perdiccas in Susa .

After Alexander's death the southern media around Ekbatana went to the satrap Pheiton , Atropates remained satrap in the northern media. He managed to survive the Diadoch Wars and was able to maintain an independent position of power between the rival empires. In the north of Media a separate empire was created, which was named Media Atropatene after him and which stretched between Lake Urmia and the Caspian Sea , while southern Media fell to the Seleucid Empire. The modern name Azerbaijan is most likely derived from Atropatene .

Atropates was the founder of his own dynasty in Atropatene, which was able to hold out for over three centuries until the time of the Roman-Parthian disputes and thereby linked more to older Achaemenid than to Hellenistic traditions.

Diodor handed down the spelling Atrapes . How long Atropates ruled and when he died can no longer be precisely determined.

swell

• Arrian, Anabasis 3,8,4; 3,20,3; 4.18.3; 6.29.3; 7.4.1; 7.4.5; 7,13,2; 7.13.6
• Diodorus 18,3,3
• Justin 13,4,3
• Strabo 11,13,1

literature

• Julius Kaerst : Atropates . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1896, Col. 2150.
• Ernst Badian : Atropates. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Col. 225 f.
• Waldemar Heckel : Atropates . In: Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great. Prosopography of Alexander's Empire . Blackwell, Malden et al. 2006, ISBN 1-4051-1210-7 , pp. 61 f .
• John Hyland: Alexander's Satraps of Media . In: Journal of Ancient History . tape 1 , no. 2 , 2013, ISSN  2324-8106 , p. 119-144 , doi : 10.1515 / jah-2013-0008 .

Web links

• ML Chaumont: Atropates . In: Ehsan Yarshater (ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume 3, pp. 17–18, as of August 17, 2011 (English, including references)
• Jona Lendering: Atropates . In: Livius.org (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Lothar Berthold (ed.): Atlas for history. Volume 1: From the Beginnings of Human Society to the Eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917. 3rd edition. Haack, Gotha et al. 1981, p. 11, pictures I and II.