Struthas was a

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 ...

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 ...

for a brief period during the

Corinthian War The Corinthian War (395–387 BC) was a conflict in ancient Greece which pitted Sparta against a coalition of city-states comprising Thebes, Greece, Thebes, Classical Athens, Athens, Ancient Corinth, Corinth and Argos, Peloponnese, Argos, backe ...

. In 392 BC, he was dispatched by

Artaxerxes II Arses (; 445 – 359/8 BC), known by his regnal name Artaxerxes II ( ; ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 BC to 358 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius II () and his mother was Parysatis. Soon after his accession, Ar ...

to take command of the satrapy of

Sardis Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy) ...

, replacing

Tiribazus Tiribazus, Tiribazos or Teribazus ( Old Iranian: ''Tīrībāzu'') ( 440 BC–370 BC) was an Achaemenid satrap of Armenia and later satrap of Lydia in western Anatolia. Satrap of Western Armenia He was highly regarded by the Persian King Artaxerxe ...

, and to pursue an anti-

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

n policy. Accordingly, Struthas raided territory held by the Spartans and their allies, prompting the Spartans to order their commander in the region, Thibron, to begin aggressive activity against Struthas. Thibron raided successfully for a time, but Struthas eventually succeeded in ambushing one of his raiding expeditions. One source even indicates that Thibron was slain in personal combat by Struthas himself. What was left of his army was subsequently incorporated into a new army under Diphridas before his cavalry routed and destroyed the rest of the Spartan army save for a few survivors that escaped to nearby cities and more that were left back at the camp due to not learning of the expedition in time to partake. Thibron was then replaced by Diphridas, who rebuilt his army from the remnants of Thibron's and raided Struthas's territory successfully, even capturing his son-in-law, but achieved little remarkable success. Although the specific events of Struthas's removal from office are not known, by the early 380s BC he had been replaced by

, and makes no further appearances in the historical record.

Historical sources

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

, Hellenika 4, 8, 17-19 (online copies:

Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

Gutenberg
* Diodor 14, 99, 1-3 (online copies
Loeb (LacusCurtius)
Achaemenid satraps of Lydia 4th-century BC deaths Year of birth unknown 4th-century BC Iranian people People of the Corinthian War {{Achaemenid rulers