Artabazos I of Phrygia

Artabazos (

General in the Second Persian invasion of Greece

Parthian soldier

Chorasmian soldier

Artabazus was one of the generals of

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.[3] 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

Pharnacid dynasty (Satraps of Hellespontine Phrygia)
c.550–497 BCE (Pharnaces) c.480–455 BCE Artabazus I c.455–430 BCE Pharnabazus I c.430–420 BCE Pharnaces II c.413–374 BCE Pharnabazus II c.407–362 BCE Ariobarzanes c.389–329 BCE Artabazus II c.370–320 BCE Pharnabazus III
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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

Artabazus was named satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia in 479 BC. 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

Artabazos, together with

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,^[6] and of this time the final 18 months was occupied with the Siege of Prosoptis.^[7]

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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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 Papremis. 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.^[7][11]

Siege of Prosopitis (455 BC)

The Athenians now fell back to the island of Prosopitis in the Nile delta, where their ships were moored.^[7][11] 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".^[7] In Thucydides's account the Persians then crossed over to the former island, and captured it.^[7] Only a few of the Athenian force, marching through Libya to Cyrene survived to return to Athens.^[6] 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.^[11] 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.^[12]

Succession

He was succeeded by his son,