Sataspes

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Sataspes , son of Teaspes, was a Persian nobleman and sea traveler in the 5th century BC. His mother was a sister of the Great King Darius I , making it the Great King, a first cousin of Xerxes I was.

Around the year 483/482 BC Sataspes raped a daughter of the high-ranking nobleman Zopyros , after which he was sentenced to death by impalation by Xerxes I. However, his mother was able to obtain parole for her son from her royal nephew. From Xerxes I. Sataspes therefore received the order to circumnavigate the country Libya ( Africa ) from west to east with a fleet , contrary to the direction of the sea expedition that Pharaoh Necho II once initiated. Well equipped with Phoenician ships, Sataspes began his journey in Egypt , drove along the North African coast, passed the Pillars of Heracles to turn south at Cape Soloeis (probably Cape Cantin). During the trip, the expedition spotted small people in unknown countries who used palm branches as clothing. However, there was no contact with them, as the local population always fled to the hilly hinterland as soon as the expedition went ashore.

Probably discouraged after the month-long journey along the coast of the Sahara , Sataspes decided to turn around and sailed back to Egypt. He explained this to the Great King by saying that there were shoals that would have made further passage of the continent impossible. Xerxes did not believe him and now had Sataspes stake for his failure.

After Sataspes' death, one of his eunuchs seized part of his fortune and thus fled to Samos . There the eunuch was stolen from by a local from whom the historian Herodotus claims to have learned the story of the Sataspes expedition and was thus able to include it in his histories (4.43). Since it is the only source for this, its truthfulness is difficult to verify.

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