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PIETRO VANNICELLI

Università di Roma–La Sapienza

Descendant of Artembares and son of CHERASMIS, Artaÿctes was the Persian governor of SESTOS, on the European side of the HELLESPONT (9.116.1). He commanded the MACRONES and MOSSYNOECIANS in XERXES’ land army in 480 BCE (7.78). During Xerxes’ expedition, Artaÿctes plundered and desecrated the sanctuary of PROTESILAUS, the first Greek killed during the TROJAN WAR, at ELAEUS (9.116; cf. 7.33). Artaÿctes’ impiety was punished: during the Athenian SIEGE of Sestos in 479 he tried to escape but was captured, taken back to Sestos, and despite his offer of a ransom, crucified at the insistence of the people of Elaeus and with the agreement of the Athenian general XANTHIPPUS; his son was also stoned to death before his eyes (9.117–20). The siege of Sestos, undertaken by the Athenians alone, and the execution of Artaÿctes are the last events Herodotus narrates in the Histories—a conclusion that replays some of the work’s central themes, including divine retribution for human impiety; the conflict between West and East, going back to mythical times; the Trojan War as mythical paradigm of the PERSIAN WARS; and finally the future assumption of the hegemony by ATHENS and the potential parallels between them and PERSIA.

SEE ALSO: Artembares the Persian; End of the Histories; Punishment; Reciprocity; Sacrilege; Temples and Sanctuaries