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HENRY P. COLBURN

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Artaphernes was the son of Hystaspes and brother of the Persian king DARIUS I. He was the satrap of SARDIS from c. 513 BCE and held this post through the duration of the IONIAN REVOLT and its aftermath.

One MANUSCRIPT family of the Histories gives his name as “Artaphrenes,” perhaps on the basis of a false Greek etymology (e.g., phrēn). In Old Persian his name means “endowed with the glory of the FIRE” (Tavernier 2007, 124–25). In addition to the references to him in Herodotus, he appears in at least two Elamite administrative tablets in the PERSEPOLIS Fortification Archive (Hallock 1969, nos. 1404, 1455). His son was also named Artaphernes.

AESCHYLUS (Pers. 776) credits Artaphernes with slaying Mardus (i.e., the false SMERDIS), but he is not mentioned in the BISITUN Inscription or in Herodotus’ account of the conspiracy. Darius appointed him satrap of Sardis around 513 (5.25). In that position, he demanded EARTH AND WATER from an Athenian embassy seeking an alliance against SPARTA in 507 (5.73); the ambassadors accepted his terms but were censured for doing so upon their return to ATHENS. He urged the Athenians to accept the return of the tyrant HIPPIAS (5.96), a directive which they rejected. At the behest of ARISTAGORAS (1), Artaphernes dispatched an expedition led by MEGABATES to capture NAXOS in 500 (5.30–35); it was ultimately unsuccessful. In 498 during the Ionian Revolt he defended the ACROPOLIS of Sardis against the IONIANS (5.100), and in 496 he and OTANES (2) captured CLAZOMENAE and CYME (5.123). He executed HISTIAEUS and his fellow conspirators (6.1–4, 30)—according to Herodotus, to prevent Histiaeus from gaining the ear of Darius a second time. At the end of the Ionian Revolt Artaphernes conducted a survey of Ionian territories for the purposes of establishing TRIBUTE payments (6.42–43; cf. Diod. Sic. 10.25.4); this survey is thought to be the basis for the tribute payments later set by ARISTEIDES for the DELIAN LEAGUE (Raaflaub 2009, 100–1). According to Justin (Epit. 2.10.9), after the death of Darius in 486, Artaphernes supported XERXES’ claim to the throne.

SEE ALSO: Artaphernes son of Artaphernes; Hermippus; Hystaspes son of Arsames; Satrapies