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Artabazos (480 -455) was a Persian general in
the army of Xerxes I, and later satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia (now northwest
Turkey) under the Achaemenid dynasty, founder of the Pharnacid dynasty of
satraps. He was the son of Pharnaces, who was the younger brother of Hystaspes,
father of Darius I. Artabazos was therefore a first cousin of the great
Achaemenid ruler Darius I.
General in the Second Persian invasion of Greece:
Artabazus was one of the generals of Xerxes in the 480 Second Persian invasion
of Greece, in command of the Parthians and the Chorasmians in the Achaemenid
army. He was particularly in charge of the reserve forces guarding the route
back to Asia, and responsible for suppressing a revolt in Potidaea. The
invasion ended the following year with the Commander in Chief Mardonius,
ignoring advice from Artabazus and others, meeting the Greeks in pitched battle
at the Battle of Plataea and being defeated in 479. The Greeks followed up
their victory by sailing to Ionia, where they destroyed the garrisoning forces
under Tigranes at Mycale in the same year. Artabazus, however, had refrained
from engaging his troops at the Battle of Plataea, and thus managed to lead the
remnant portion of a greatly reduced Achaemenid army out of Greece and back to
Ionia. According to Herodotus and Plutarch this force consisted of 40,000 men.
Herodotus claims that in Thessaly he did not reveal the defeat as he would have
been attacked, but claimed he needed to go to Thrace on a special mission. He
was able to return to Persian territory despite losing men in attacks in
Thrace.
Satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia:
As a reward, Artabazus was made satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia. He was already
preceded in this role by several Achaemenid satraps: the first Achaemenid ruler
of Hellespontine Phrygia had been Mitrobates (ca. 525–522), who was
appointed by Cyrus the Great and continued under Cambises. He was killed and
his territory absorbed by the satrap of neighbouring Lydia, Oroetes. Following
the reorganization of Darius I, Mitrobates was succeeded by Oebares II (c.493),
son of Megabazus. Artabazus was named satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia in 479.
He was the first official satrap of the Pharnacid dynasty, named after his
illustrious father Pharnaces. This office was passed down to his descendants,
down to the conquests of Alexander the Great.
Egypt and Cyprus campaigns:
Main article: Wars of the Delian League:
Artabazos, together with Megabyzus, then satrap of Syria, had command of the
Persian armies sent to put down the revolt of Inarus in Egypt. They arrived in
456, and within two years had put down the revolt, capturing Inarus and various
Athenians supporting him. They then turned their attention to Cyprus, which was
under attack by the Athenians, led by Cimon. Shortly afterwards hostilities
between Persia and Athens ceased, called the peace of Callias.
Origin of the Egyptian campaign:
When Xerxes I was assassinated in 465, he was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes
I, but several parts of the Achaemenid empire soon revolted, foremost of which
were Bactria and Egypt. The Egyptian Inarus defeated the Persian satrap of
Egypt Achaemenes, a brother of Artaxerxes, and took control of Lower Egypt. He
contacted the Greeks, who were also officially still at war with Persia, and in
460, Athens sent an expeditionary force of 200 ships and 6000 heavy infantry to
support Inarus. The Egyptian and Athenian troops defeated the local Persian
troops of Egypt, and captured the city of Memphis, except for the Persian
citadel which they besieged for several years.
Siege of Memphis (459-455):
Megabyzus fought against the Athenians and the Egyptians in the Siege of
Memphis (459-455) and the Siege of Prosopitis (455).
The Athenians and Egyptians had settled down to besiege the local Persian
troops in Egypt, at the White Castle. The siege evidently did not progress
well, and probably lasted for at least four years, since Thucydides says that
their whole expedition lasted 6 years, and of this time the final 18 months was
occupied with the Siege of Prosoptis. According to Thucydides, at first
Artaxerxes sent Megabazus to try and bribe the Spartans into invading Attica,
to draw off the Athenian forces from Egypt. When this failed, he instead
assembled a large army under Megabyzus, and dispatched it to Egypt. Diodorus
has more or less the same story, with more detail; after the attempt at bribery
failed, Artaxerxes put Megabyzus and Artabazus in charge of 300,000 men, with
instructions to quell the revolt. They went first from Persia to Cilicia and
gathered a fleet of 300 triremes from the Cilicians, Phoenicians and Cypriots,
and spent a year training their men. Then they finally headed to Egypt.
Modern estimates, however, place the number of Persian troops at the
considerably lower figure of 25,000 men given that it would have been highly
impractical to deprive the already strained satrapies of any more man power
than that. Thucydides does not mention Artabazus, who is reported by Herodotus
to have taken part in the second Persian invasion; Diodorus may be mistaken
about his presence in this campaign. It is clearly possible that the Persian
forces did spend some prolonged time in training, since it took four years for
them to respond to the Egyptian victory at Pampremis. Although neither author
gives many details, it is clear that when Megabyzus finally arrived in Egypt,
he was able to quickly lift the Siege of Memphis, defeating the Egyptians in
battle, and driving the Athenians from Memphis.
Siege of Prosopitis (455):
The Athenians now fell back to the island of Prosopitis in the Nile delta,
where their ships were moored. There, Megabyzus laid siege to them for 18
months, until finally he was able to drain the river from around the island by
digging canals, thus "joining the island to the mainland". In
Thucydides's account the Persians then crossed over to the former island, and
captured it. Only a few of the Athenian force, marching through Libya to Cyrene
survived to return to Athens. In Diodorus's version, however, the draining of
the river prompted the Egyptians (whom Thucydides does not mention) to defect
and surrender to the Persians. The Persians, not wanting to sustain heavy
casualties in attacking the Athenians, instead allowed them to depart freely to
Cyrene, whence they returned to Athens. Since the defeat of the Egyptian
expedition caused a genuine panic in Athens, including the relocation of the
Delian treasury to Athens, Thucydides's version is probably more likely to be
correct.
Succession:
He was succeeded by his son, Pharnabazus I (fl. 455 - 430), of whom little is
known, and then by his grandson Pharnaces II of Phrygia (fl. 430 - 413), who is
known to have been satrap at the outset of the Peloponnesian War. Pharnaces was
in turn succeeded by his son, Pharnabazus II (fl. 413 - 373), who is well known
for his rivalry with Tissaphernes and wars against the Spartans.
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