Megabates

Megabates ( Greek: Μεγαβάτης; † after 478 BC) was a general and governor ( satrap ) in the Persian empire of the Achaemenids . He was a younger son of the Megabazos . Herodotus reported that he (and his family with him) belonged to the Achaemenid dynasty, and that Great King Darius I was his cousin.

Megabates was founded 500/499 BC. Was appointed commander of a fleet of 200 ships by Artaphernes , with which he was supposed to assist the tyrant of Miletus , Aristagoras , in the conquest of Naxos . However, this venture failed after four months of siege due to a personal dislike of both men for each other. It even went so far that Megabates secretly supported the besieged Naxians in their defensive measures against Aristagoras.

Megabates succeeded his older brother Oibares as governor of Phrygia with the Daskyleion residence . Herodotus reported with his own doubts [εἰ δὴ ἀληθής γε ἐστὶ ὁ λόγος] for the year 478 BC. BC that the Hellenic general Pausanias , who had just taken Byzantium , intended to marry a daughter of Megabates in order to subsequently subdue Greece for the Persian great king. According to Thucydides, however, Pausanias had addressed the marriage offer directly to Great King Xerxes I , with the request for the hand of a royal princess after Megabates had already been replaced by Artabazos in his office.

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• Herodotus 5,32-35; 6.32
• Thucydides 1,128-129