Patizeithes ( el, Πατιζείθης, translit=Pathizeíthēs) was a Persian

magus Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...

(priest) who flourished in the second half of the 6th century BC. According to

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...

, he persuaded his brother Smerdis (Gaumata) in 521 BC to rebel against

Cambyses II Cambyses II ( peo, 𐎣𐎲𐎢𐎪𐎡𐎹 ''Kabūjiya'') was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 530 to 522 BC. He was the son and successor of Cyrus the Great () and his mother was Cassandane. Before his accession, Cambyse ...

(530–522 BC), who at the time ruled as

King of Kings King of Kings; grc-gre, Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων, Basileùs Basiléōn; hy, արքայից արքա, ark'ayits ark'a; sa, महाराजाधिराज, Mahārājadhirāja; ka, მეფეთ მეფე, ''Mepet mepe'' ...

of the

Achaemenid Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

. Herodotus states that Patizeithes was eventually killed by Cambyses's successor Darius (later "the Great") (522–486 BC). The name "Patizeithes" is the form recorded by Herodotus.

Dionysius of Miletus Dionysius of Miletus ( el, Διονύσιος, translit=Dionýsios) was an ancient Greek ethnographer and historian. He may have lived in the 5th century BC and was a contemporary of Hecataeus of Miletus according to the '' Suda'' (a tenth century ...

cited his name as Panzouthes, which is identical to Pazates as recorded by Xanthus the Lydian. The later Roman historian

Justin Justin may refer to: People * Justin (name), including a list of persons with the given name Justin * Justin (historian), a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527), or ''Flavius Iustinius Augustus'', Eastern Rom ...

recorded his name as Oropastes. According to the modern

Iranologist Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

Josef Wiesehöfer Josef Wiesehöfer (born April 5, 1951 in Wickede, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German classical scholar and current professor of Ancient history at the Department of Classics (Institut für Klassische Altertumskunde) of the University of Kiel. He i ...

, the name "Patizeithes" should be interpreted as a title, "although it is etymologically unclear". Wiesehöfer notes that the name may be connected to the word ''Pitiáchēs'' as recorded in later Greek sources, which is known in

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

as ''btḥšy'' (

bidaxsh Bidaxsh (''bidakhsh'', also spelled Pitiakhsh; in Roman sources ''Vitaxa'') was a title of Iranian origin attested in various languages from the 1st to the 8th-century. It has no identical word in English, but it is similar to a margrave, toparch an ...

), i.e. "viceroy".

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patizeithes 6th-century BC deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 6th-century BC Iranian people Zoroastrian priests People from the Achaemenid Empire Magi