Prexaspes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prexaspes ( old Persian: Parrakašpi ; † 522 BC ) was a Persian nobleman of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC.

Prexaspes served the Great King Cambyses II as a messenger during his Egypt campaign. From this he was around 525 BC. Sent to Susa with the order to kill king brother Bardiya . He dutifully fulfilled this mission by either killing the prince on a hunt or drowning in the Red Sea . Then he returned to Egypt. Prexaspes had a son who served the great king as cupbearer. The wrathful Great King wanted to use the boy to prove that he had not become addicted to alcohol and gone mad, as some Persians at court believed, according to Prexaspes' testimony. By shooting the boy with a bow and hitting him directly in the heart, the great king attested that he had a clear mind. But if he had missed, the statements of the Persians would have been justified. Prexaspes agreed to this, fearing for his own life.

522 BC Prexaspes was the first to recognize the usurpation of the throne by the miser Gaumata , who posed as Bardiya, because he himself had murdered the Bardiya. But after Cambyses II died shortly afterwards, he denied the act out of fear for his life and thus covered the usurper. Gaumata and the magicians allied with him , who were the only ones who knew his true identity, intended to win Prexaspes to their side by means of a favor, with the intention that he would never speak the truth about the identity theft . To do this, he should publicly confirm the identity of the new great king as Bardiya. Prexaspes initially agreed to do so, but when he had climbed a tower of the palace and spoke to the assembled court society, he confessed to the murder of Bardiya and revealed that the magician had surrendered the throne. To this end, he called for the Persians to revolt against them and threw himself into his death. His confession had reinforced the seven conspirators Otanes , Ardumaniš (Aspathines), Gobryas , Intaphrenes , Hydarnes , Megabyzos and Darios , who, regardless of his testimony, had exposed the usurpation, in their intention to overthrow the magicians.

The story of Prexaspes was processed as a drama by Peter Hacks in 1968 .

family

Prexaspes had a second son named Aspathines , who later served the great kings Darius I and Xerxes I in an elevated position at the court. The paternity to him is concluded from clay tablets from Persepolis , in that the patronym Parrakašpi named there for Aspathines is translated as Prexaspes. The historian Herodotus mistakenly counted Aspathines as one of the seven conspirators in place of Ardumaniš. That Prexaspes, son of Aspathines, who lived in 480 BC. Chr. Appeared as fleet commander, should have been a grandson of the person described here.

literature

  • Konrad Gaiser : The loyalty of Prexaspes (Herodot III 74-75). In: Navicula Tubingensis. Studia in honorem Antonii Tovar, Narr, Tübingen 1984, pp. 133-143.
  • Josef Wiesehöfer : Prexaspes 1. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 10, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01480-0 , column 304.
  • Pierre Briant : From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2002.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Herodotus , Historíai . 3, 30.
  2. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 3, 34.
  3. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 3, 62-63.
  4. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 3, 66.
  5. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 3, 74.
  6. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 3, 76.
  7. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 3, 77.
  8. ↑ Ilya Gershevitch: The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 204; MA Dandamaev: A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill, Leiden 1989, p. 103.
  9. ↑ Herodotus, Historíai. 7, 97. See Briant, p. 339.
personal data
SURNAME Prexaspes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Parrakašpi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Member of the nobility in Persia, murderer of Bardiya
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 522 BC Chr.