Artybius () was a general of

ancient Persia The history of Iran (also known as Persia) is intertwined with Greater Iran, which is a socio-cultural region encompassing all of the areas that have witnessed significant settlement or influence exerted by the Iranian peoples and the Iranian ...

during the reign of

Darius the Great Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

(that is, around the 5th or 6th centuries BCE). After the

Ionian Revolt The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris (Asia Minor), Doris, Ancient history of Cyprus, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Achaemenid Empire, Persian rule, lasting from 499 ...

had broken out, he sailed with a fleet to

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

to conquer that island. In 497 BCE, the general

Onesilus Onesilus or Onesilos (, "useful one"; died 497 BC) was the brother of king Gorgos (Gorgus) of the Greek city-state of Salamis on the island of Cyprus. He is known only through the work of Herodotus (''Histories'', V.104–115). Background Cyprus ...

of Salamis, the head among the chiefs of Cyprus, asked to face Artybius in combat. Artybius accepted the offer, and rode out on his horse to face Onesilus and his attendant, who were on foot. The historian

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

relates an anecdote that Onesilus believed Artybius to have trained his horse to rear up and attack on command, and, after discussion with his attendant, when Artybius's horse did in fact make such an attack, Onesilus engaged Artybius and then he (or his attendant) chopped off the rearing horse's leg with his

sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...

. The horse fell on top of Artybius, allowing him to be slain easily.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Artybius 6th-century BC births 497 BC deaths Ionian Revolt People from the Achaemenid Empire Persian people of the Greco-Persian Wars