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Amestris
Amestris (, ''Amēstris'', perhaps the same as Άμαστρις, ''Amāstris'', from Old Persian ''Amāstrī-'', "strong woman") was an Achaemenid queen, wife of king Xerxes I and mother of king Artaxerxes I. She was poorly regarded by ancient Greek historians. Life Amestris was the daughter of Otanes, one of the seven noblemen reputed to have killed the magus who was impersonating King Bardiya in 522 BC. After this, Darius I the Great of Persia assumed the throne. According to Herodotus, Otanes was honoured with royal marriages. Darius I married Otanes' daughter Phaedymia while Otanes married a sister of Darius, who gave birth to Amestris. When Darius died in 486 BC, Amestris was married to the crown prince, Xerxes. Herodotus describes Amestris as a cruel despot: The origin of this story is unclear, since known records and accounts indicate that human sacrifices were not permitted within the Persian religion. Also since most accounts of the time are from Greek sour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masistes
Masistes (Old Persian 𐎶𐎰𐎡𐏁𐎫, ''Maθišta''; Greek Μασίστης, ''Masístēs''; Old Iranian *''Masišta''; died 478 BC) was a Persian prince of the Achaemenid Dynasty, son of king Darius I (reign: 520-486 BC) and of his wife Atossa, and full brother of king Xerxes I (reign: 486-465 BC). He was satrap (governor) of Bactria during his brother's reign, where he attempted to start a revolt in 478 BC. Chief marshal Masistes was one of the six chief marshals of the Greek campaigns of Xerxes (480-479 BC). Along with general Mardonius, he commanded the army column that crossed Thrace along the coast; however, he was almost completely absent during the course of the war, including the battles of Salamis and Plataea. He reappeared close to the end of the war, when he fought in the Battle of Mycale (479 BC). According to Herodotus, the battle was just about to take place at sea, but the Persians decided to come ashore in Ionia, Asia Minor, and fight on land. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius (son Of Xerxes I)
Darius ( ; ; – 465 BCE), was crown prince of the Persian Empire. He was the eldest son of the Persian king Xerxes I and his wife Amestris. His younger brothers were Hystaspes and Artaxerxes, and his younger sisters were Rhodogune and Amytis. In 478 BC, before the revolt at Bactria, Darius was married to his cousin Artaynte at Sardis. She was also the daughter of his uncle Masistes. At the behest of Xerxes, Artaynte committed adultery with him. When the queen Amestris found out about the horrific event, she did not seek revenge against Artaynte, but against her mother, Masistes' wife, as Amestris thought that it was due to her connivance. On Xerxes' birthday, Amestris sent for his guards and mutilated Artaynte's mother. On seeing this, Masistes fled to Bactria to start a revolt, but was intercepted by Xerxes' army who killed him and his sons. In 465 BC, Darius may have ascended to the throne as King of Persia after his father was murdered in a conspiracy carried out by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amytis Of Persia
Amytis (Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) was an Achaemenid princess, daughter of king Xerxes I and queen Amestris, and sister of king Artaxerxes I. Name The female name is the Latinised form of the Greek name (), which perhaps may reflect (with vowel metathesis) an original Old Persian name , meaning "having good thought," and which is an equivalent of the Avestan term (). Life She was given in marriage to the nobleman Megabyzus. Amytis and her mother are portrayed in Ctesias' account as the most powerful women during Artaxerxes' reign. Near 445 BCE, her husband Megabyzus started a successful revolt in Syria against Artaxerxes I. Initially, Amytis stayed with the king during the war; however, she later participated, along with Amestris and the satrap Artarius, in the reconciliation negotiations between the rebel and the king. Notwithstanding this, Megabyzus again fell in disgrace and was expelled from the court and exiled to a town on the Persian Gulf. After five year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artaynte
Artaynte (f. 478 BC), was the wife of the Crown Prince Darius, son of the king Xerxes I. Life What we know of Artaynte primarily comes from the writings of Herodotus. She was the daughter of an unnamed woman and Prince Masistes, who was a marshall of the armies during the invasion of Greece in 480-479 BC, and was also the brother of King Xerxes I. During the Greek campaign Xerxes developed a passionate desire for the wife of his brother Masistes, but she would constantly resist and would not bend to his will. Upon returning to Sardis, the king endeavoured to bring about the marriage of his son Darius to Artaynte, the daughter of this woman the wife of Masistes, supposing that by doing so he could obtain Artaynte's mother more easily. After moving to Susa he brought Artaynte to the royal house with him for his son Darius, but fell in love with her himself, and after obtaining her they became lovers. At the behest of Xerxes, Artaynte committed adultery with him. When queen Amest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xerxes I
Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great. In Western history, Xerxes is best known for his Second Persian invasion of Greece, invasion of Greece in 480 BC, which ended in Persian defeat. Xerxes was designated successor by Darius over his elder brother Artobazan and inherited a large, multi-ethnic empire upon his father's death. He consolidated his power by crushing revolts in Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt, Egypt and Babylonian revolts (484 BC), Babylon, and renewed his father's campaign to subjugate Ancient Greece, Greece and punish Classical Athens, Athens and its allies for their interference in the Ionian Revolt. In 480 BC, Xerxes personally led a large army and crossed the Dardanelles, Hellespont into Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artaxerxes I
Artaxerxes I (, ; ) was the fifth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, from 465 to December 424 BC. He was the third son of Xerxes I. In Greek sources he is also surnamed "Long-handed" ( ''Makrókheir''; ), allegedly because his right hand was longer than his left. Josephus, and several ancient traditions identify him as Ahasuerus#Identification of "Ahasuerus" as Artaxerxes I, King Ahasuerus, from the Book of Esther. Succession to the throne Artaxerxes was probably born in the reign of his grandfather Darius I, to the emperor's son and heir, Xerxes I. In 465 BC, Xerxes I was murdered by ''Hazarapat'' ("commander of thousand") Artabanus of Persia, Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court, with the help of a eunuch, Aspamitres. Greek historians give contradicting accounts of events. According to Ctesias (in ''Persica'' 20), Artabanus then accused Darius (son of Xerxes I), Crown Prince Darius, Xerxes's eldest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serse
''Serse'' (; English title: ''Xerxes''; HWV 40) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia (1664–1725) for an earlier Xerse (Bononcini), opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694. Stampiglia's libretto was itself based on Xerse, one by Nicolò Minato (ca.1627–1698) that was set by Francesco Cavalli in 1654. The opera is set in Persian Empire, Persia (modern-day Iran) about 470 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia. Serse, originally sung by a mezzo-soprano castrato, is now usually performed by a female mezzo-soprano or countertenor. The opening aria, "Ombra mai fu", sung by Xerxes to a plane tree (''Platanus orientalis''), is set to one of Handel's best-known melodies, and is often known as Handel's "Largo" (despite being marked "larghetto" in the score). Composition history In late 1737 the King's Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otanes (noble)
Otanes (Old Persian: ''Utāna'', ) is a name given to several figures that appear in the ''Histories'' of Herodotus. One or more of these figures may be the same person. In the ''Histories'' Otanes, son of Pharnaspes He was regarded as a Persian nobleman, being among the few with highest ranks in the kingdom, who was also a political philosopher. ''Histories'' 3.68.1, 3.68.3, 3.69.6 has an Otanes as the son of the Achaemenid Pharnaspes, as the father of Phaidyme (or Phaedyma), who in turn is a wife of Cambyses II, and later a wife of the Gaumata alias Smerdis. Herodotus gives this Otanes a role in the overthrow of the false Smerdis, and ''this'' Otanes is therefore generally assumed to be identical to a known co-conspirator of Darius I, mentioned in Darius's own list of his helpers at overthrowing Gaumata (DB IV 83). The Behistun inscription has this Otanes as the son of Thukhra, in which case he could not have been the son of Pharnaspes, and so cannot have been a brother of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Histories (Herodotus)
The ''Histories'' (, ''Historíai''; also known as ''The History'') of Herodotus is considered the founding work of history in Western literature. Although not a fully impartial record, it remains one of the West's most important sources regarding these affairs. Moreover, it established the genre and study of history in the Western world (despite the existence of historical records and chronicles beforehand). ''The'' ''Histories'' also stands as one of the earliest accounts of the rise of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire, as well as the events and causes of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Persian Empire and the Polis, Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus portrays the conflict as one between the forces of slavery (the Persians) on the one hand, and freedom (the Athenians and the confederacy of Greek city-states which united against the invaders) on the other. ''The Histories'' was at some point divided into the nine scroll, books that appear in modern editions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the List of largest empires#Timeline of largest empires to date, largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of . The empire spanned from the Balkans and ancient Egypt, Egypt in the west, most of West Asia, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Basin, Indus Valley of South Asia to the southeast. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Medes, Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognised for its imposition of a succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persians
Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They are indigenous to the Iranian plateau and comprise the majority of the population of Iran.Iran Census Results 2016 United Nations Alongside having a common cultural system, they are native speakers of the and of the |
