Bagoas

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Bagoas ( old Persian Bagoi ; † 336 BC ) was a court minister in the Persian empire in the 4th century BC. He gained fame as the "kingmaker" of the last Achaemenids . He is not to be confused with the favorite of the same name of Alexander the great.

Life

Bagoas was a eunuch and supposedly of Egyptian origin. He served the great king Artaxerxes III. initially as a general. According to the Greek historian Diodorus , Bagoas should be in the Artaxerxes III. in winter 342/341 BC Led conquest battle against Egypt together with the Greek mercenary leader Mentor von Rhodes led one of the three attacking armies that first attacked Pharaoh Nectanebos II , while Artaxerxes III. should have initially kept in the background. The regiment of the Mentor and Bagoas is said to have included numerous ships. With the taking of Bubastisthe conquest of the Nile Delta was made possible. However, the information provided by Diodorus is questionable, which is why a reliable historical confirmation of the details described cannot be made.

The great king then appointed Bagoas commander in chief of the " upper satrapies " (provinces east of the Euphrates ). Soon afterwards he rose to become its first court minister ( Chiliarch ). According to the Roman naturalist Claudius Aelianus , Bagoas secretly hated the great king because he had the holy Apis bull killed by Memphis after the conquest of Egypt . In 338 BC Bagoas poisoned the Great King, had his corpse cut into pieces and thrown cats to eat, and dagger handles made from the thighbones of his victim.

All sons of Artaxerxes III are said to be involved in the assassination. Ochos fell victim. Bagoas only left the youngest, Arses , alive in order to make him king (Artaxerxes IV) as his puppet. But when Arses tried to emancipate himself from him after two years, he had him poisoned too. Bagoas was now looking for Dareios III. Kodomannos as the new king, but he saw through the machinations of the minister. A third time a great king should die by poison, but Dareios III. was warned of the assassination in good time and then passed the poison cup to Bagoas, who thus ended.

According to Arrian , Alexander the Great later claimed rule over the Persian Empire as the successor to Arses and considered the rule of Darius III. as illegitimate based on the circumstances under which it was founded. The palace of Bagoas in Susa and its gardens in Ekbatana were given away by Alexander to the general Parmenion .

swell

  • Diodorus 16.47-50; 17.5
  • Claudius Aelianus Varia historia 6.8
  • Arrian Anabasis 2.14.5
  • Pliny Historia naturalis 13.41
  • Plutarch Alexander 39.10

literature

Web links

  • Bagoas by Jona Lendering (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diodorus, 16.47.4 .
  2. ↑ Diodorus, 16.47-50 .
  3. ↑ Pierre Briant: From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire . Pp. 784-785.
personal data
SURNAME Bagoas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bagoas, Bagoi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Eunuch, Minister under Artaxerxes III.
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 336 BC Chr.