Mithrenes

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Mithrenes († after 331 BC) was a Persian official in the service of Darius III. and Alexander the Great .

Mithrenes was at the beginning of Alexander's Asian campaign in 334 BC. The Persian fortress commander of Sardis . However, after the battle of Granikos , he surrendered without a fight to the conqueror, whom he advanced seventy stadiums from Sardis to hand over the city and its treasure to him. In Babylon Mithrenes in 331 was v. Alexander appointed satrap of the province of Armenia , making him one of the first Persians, along with Atropates and Mazaios, to be integrated into the administration of the empire conquered by Alexander . After that, Mithrenes is no longer mentioned in the traditions.

The Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus noted for the year 330 BC BC that, among other things, Armenia was under the rule of Alexander. During his journey to Babylon, Alexander had crossed Armenia only marginally and not completely conquered it. Curtius' note gives an indication that Mithrenes might in fact have subjugated the province of Armenia one year after his appointment as governor. In more recent historical research, however, this is largely rejected; instead, Alexander is only granted nominal, not actual, rule over Armenia, if at all. This is supported by the fact that Mithrenes was no longer mentioned until Alexander's death and beyond and that administrative activities in Armenia on the part of the Macedonian conqueror were no longer reported. The historian and geographer Strabon , however, reports that Alexander was born before the year 329 BC. An army under the general Menon had to send into the southeast Armenian region of Syspiritis to bring the gold mines of Kabbalah under control, which does not speak for a stable regime in this region. The native Orontid dynasty , which had ruled Armenia under the Achaemenids, was probably able to defend itself against attempts at subjugation by the Macedonian conquerors during the time of Alexander and beyond.

After Alexander's death in 323 BC In the 3rd century BC, the general Neoptolemus was appointed satrap of Armenia in the imperial order of Babylon . There is just as little clarity about the exact structure of his governorship as there is with Mithrenes.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diodorus 17.21.7; Plutarch , Alexander 17.1; Arrian , Anabasis 1.17.3.
  2. ↑ Diodorus 17.64.6; Curtius Rufus 5.1.44; Arrian, Anabasis 3.16.5.
  3. ↑ Curtius Rufus 6.3.3.
  4. ↑ There is a presumption that Mithrenes fell while trying to conquer Armenia. See: Edward M. Anson: Neoptolemus and Armenia. In: The Ancient History Bulletin. 4, 1990, ISSN  0835-3638 , pp. 125-128.
  5. ↑ Strabo 11.14.9.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Mithrenes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Satrap of Armenia
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 331 BC Chr.