Pherendates (;
) was an
Achaemenid 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 ...
of
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 ...
in the early 5th century BCE, at the time of the Achaemenid
27th Dynasty of Egypt.
Career
A son of
Megabazus, and an army commander under king
Darius I
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 ...
, Pherendates is mainly attested from three letters written in
Egyptian Demotic. He replaced the satrap
Aryandes who was deposed by Darius around 496 BCE;
[ although the exact accession date of Pherendates is unknown. Pherendates was definitely the satrap in 492 BCE.ARYANDES]
at the ''Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encyc ...
''.
In the aforementioned letters, certain priests of the local temple of
Khnum at
Elephantine
Elephantine ( ; ; ; ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological site, archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of ...
asked Pherendates to take care of some of their business in their place, a rather standard request to the pharaoh (or his representative, such as in this case) in any period of
ancient Egyptian history.
In 486–485 BCE a revolt occurred in Egypt, which was quelled in 484 BCE by a new satrap,
Achaemenes. It is possible that Pherendates lost his life during the turmoil.
References
Further reading
*
*
Achaemenid satraps of Egypt
Year of birth unknown
5th-century BC Iranian people
5th century BC in Egypt
Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt
Officials of Darius the Great
{{AncientEgypt-bio-stub