Arbinas

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Arbinas
Portrait of Arbinas wearing the satrapal headdress, from his coinage.
Native name
Erbinas
Allegiance Achaemenid Empire
RankSatrap
Asia Minor
in the Greco-Roman period. The classical regions, including Lycia, and their main settlements
Arbinas, in Achaemenid dress on the Nereid Monument.

Arbinas, also Erbinas, Erbbina, was a Lycian Dynast who ruled circa 430/20-400 BCE. He is most famous for his tomb, the Nereid Monument, now on display in the British Museum.[1] Coinage seems to indicate that he ruled in the western part of Lycia, around Telmessos, while his tomb was established in Xanthos.[2] He was a subject of the Achaemenid Empire.[3]

Rule

He was the son of the previous Lycian king Kheriga.[4] On his inscriptions, Erbinas is described as a tyrannos, and "the man who rules over the Lycians".[4]

It seems the Lycia kingdom started to disintegrate during the rule of Arbinas, as numerous smaller rulers started to mint coinage throughout Lycia during his reign and after.[3]

Tomb

His monumental tomb, the

Greek Temple for the building of a tomb was unheard of in mainland Greece. According to Melanie Michailidis, though bearing a "Greek appearance", the Nereid Monument, the Harpy Tomb and the Tomb of Payava were built according main Zoroastrian criteria "by being composed of thick stone, raised on plinths off the ground, and having single windowless chambers".[6] The Nereid Monument was the main inspiration for the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.[5]

Coinage

  • Coin of King Arbinas, wearing the Persian cap on the reverse. Circa 430/20-400 BC
    Coin of King Arbinas, wearing the Persian cap on the reverse. Circa 430/20-400 BC
  • Coin of King Arbinas. Athena and Herakles on each side. Circa 430/20-400 BC
    Coin of King Arbinas. Athena and Herakles on each side. Circa 430/20-400 BC
  • Coin of King Arbinas. Athena and Herakles.
    Coin of King Arbinas. Athena and Herakles.

References

Sources

  • Michailidis, Melanie (2009). "Empty Graves: The Tomb Towers of Northern Iran". In Gacek, Tomasz; Pstrusińska, Jadwiga (eds.). Proceedings of the Ninth Conference of the European Society for Central Asian Studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. .