Madates () or Madetas () was a general of

Darius III Darius III ( ; ; – 330 BC) was the thirteenth and last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius was a distant member of the Achaemenid dynasty. ...

and was married to a niece of

Sisygambis Sisygambis (; died 323 BCE) was the mother of Darius III of Persia, whose reign was ended during the wars of Alexander the Great. After she was captured by Alexander at the Battle of Issus, she became devoted to him, and Alexander referred to he ...

(the mother of Darius).A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Madates
/ref> He was leading the

Uxii The Uxii () were a tribal confederation of non-Iranian semi-nomadic people who lived somewhere in the Zagros Mountains. They were classified by Nearchus as among the four predatory peoples of the southwest along with the Mardi, Sousii, and Elymae ...

. He was supposedly ethnically

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, but it is not unlikely he was Uxian. The idea that being a Persian ruling a non-Persian tribe "seems strange but has rarely received much attention from scholars."

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

and

Quintus Curtius Rufus Quintus Curtius Rufus (; ) was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian, probably of the 1st century, author of his only known and only surviving work, ''Historiae Alexandri Magni'', "Histories of Alexander the Great", or more fully ''Historiarum Alex ...

mention him. Madates tried to fight

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

, but the Uxians were at first reluctant. He defended a strong mountain fortress of the Uxii against Alexander but he defeated. After the entreaties of Sisygambis, he was pardoned by Alexander.

References

4th-century BC Iranian people Uxii Opponents of Alexander the Great {{Iran-bio-stub