Ostanes (son of Darius II)

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Ostanes (alternative form of name Artostes ; † probably 358 BC) was a member of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the 4th century BC. He was a younger son of the Great King Darius II and the Parysatis .

According to Ktesias, of the thirteen children of Darius II and the Parysatis, only four sons had reached adulthood; these were Artaxerxes II , Cyrus , Artostes and Oxendras. That Artostes must have been identical with the Ostanes mentioned by Diodor and Plutarch , and Oxandras with the Oxathres mentioned by Plutarch .

Ostanes had a son named Arsames (Arsanes) , who was the father of the last Persian great king Dareios III. († 330 BC) was. Ostanes was probably also the father of Sisygambis , the mother of Darius III, who must have been married to Arsames in siblings. Because when Artaxerxes III. in 358 BC After having ascended the throne, he massacred a large number of Achaemenid family members, whom he saw as potential competitors, including his sister Atossa and one of his uncles and over a hundred of his sons and grandchildren , in order to secure his rule . Cyrus was already 401 BC. And since Oxathres probably the father-in-law of Artaxerxes III. can only have meant Ostanes by the murdered uncle. And since, according to Curtius Rufus Sisygambis, the murder of eighty of their brothers by Artaxerxes III. complained, they can only refer to the sons of the king's son who was also murdered, Ostanes.

Of the children of Ostanes only Arsames, Sisygambis and at least one other daughter of Artaxerxes III. should have been considered harmless because they outlived him. Apparently they had lived far away and without influence from the royal court and only because of that had escaped the massacre. This is also supported by the biography of Darius III, who before his accession to the throne had lived in conditions below his class and who under Artaxerxes III. first had to work up to the modest position of a royal courier (ἀστάνδης).

literature

  • Otto Neuhaus: The father of the Sisygambis and the relationship of Darius III Kodomannos to Artaxerxes II and III. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie , Vol. 57. (1902), pp. 610–623.

annotation

  1. ↑ Ktesias von Knidos : Persika , in: The Fragments of the Greek Historians No. 688, Frag. 15, 51 [based on the edition by Dominique Lenfant ].
  2. ↑ Diodorus 17: 5, 5; Plutarch , Artoxerxes. 1, 1. See Neuhaus, pp. 617–618.
  3. ↑ Diodorus 17: 5, 5.
  4. ^ Curtius Rufus 10, 5, 23; Valerius Maximus 9, 2nd Ext. 7; Justin 10, 3, 1.
  5. ↑ On the marriage of Artaxerxes III. with a daughter of Oxanthres see Neuhaus, pp. 619–620.
  6. ↑ The sister of the Sisygambis, unknown by name, was the mother-in-law of Madates .
  7. ↑ Plutarch, Alexander. 18. Elsewhere, Darius III. even referred to as “slave” (δούλου) of the king. Plutarch, Moralia. 326f ( de fort. Alex. 2).
personal data
SURNAME Ostanes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Artostes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Achaemenid, son of the great king Darius II.
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 358 BC Chr.