Mazaces, also Mazakes (

Old Iranian The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian language ...

: ''Mazdāka'',

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

: 𐡌𐡆𐡃𐡊 MZDK), was the last

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

during the late reign 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. ...

of the 31st Dynasty of Egypt. Mazaces succeeded Sabaces after the latter's death at the

battle of Issus The Battle of Issus (also Issos) occurred in southern Anatolia, on 5 November 333 BC between the League of Corinth, Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, led by Darius III of Persia, Darius III. It was the second g ...

(333 BCE). His office lasted less than a year: when

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 ...

invaded Egypt in late 332 BCE, Mazaces did not have enough military force to put up a resistance. Counselled by Amminapes, who knew Alexander well, Mazaces handed the country to the Macedonian without a fight, along with a treasure of 800 talents of gold. This event marked the end of the short–lived second Egyptian satrapy (343–332 BCE).
It is unknown what happened to Mazaces after this event, but Alexander assigned the role of satrap of Egypt to the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Cleomenes of Naucratis Cleomenes ( Greek: Kλεoμένης ''Kleoménes''; died 322 BC), a Greek of Naucratis in Ancient Egypt, was appointed by Alexander III of Macedon as nomarch of the Arabian Nome (''νoμoς'') of Egypt and receiver of the tributes from all th ...

before leaving for the East. Mazakes may have been nominated as satrap of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

in reward for his submission, as coins in his name and in a style similar to his Egyptian predecessor Sabakes, are found in this region, and the satrap of Mesopotamia at that time is otherwise unknown. The next satrap of Mesopotamia was Bleitor.

References

Achaemenid satraps of Egypt Year of birth unknown 4th-century BC Iranian people 4th century BC in Egypt Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub