ARTAXERXES. – Hellenized name ('Αρταξέρξης'; Heb. 'Artaḥšatā'; Assyrian Artaḥsatsu; from Persian Artaḥšatā, “the great commander”) of three Achaemenid kings.
1) A. I Longimanus (465–424 B.C.), younger son of the murdered Xerxes, having barely escaped the regicide Artabanus, after two battles killed (462) his elder brother Hystaspes, his rival for the throne, supported by the Bactrians.
With 300,000 infantry and 300 Phoenician ships under the command of the satrap of Syria, Megabyzus, he then invaded Egypt, liberated near Memphis the few subjects who had remained loyal to him, and defeated (454) the Libyan king Inaros, who, having rebelled against Persia in 460 with the help of Athenian sailors and hoplites, had killed the satrap Achaemenes (in office since 484), brother of King Xerxes. But a subsequent Athenian victory (449/8) in the waters of Cyprus induced A. to make the “Athenian” or “Cimonian” peace, in which the Athenians, although renouncing every claim to Cyprus and Egypt, were guaranteed control of the Aegean (448). Finally, he reached an agreement with Megabyzus and with his own son, who had rebelled in Syria and Lydia. With A.’s death began a new series of civil wars, II (v.) brought to an end.
The return Ezra (v.) took place in the seventh year of A. I (458), according to the traditional view; it is instead assigned to the seventh year of A. II (398) by A. Van Hoonacker (Néhemie et Esdras, Louvain 1890, and in Revue Biblique, 32 [1923], pp. 481–95; 33 [1924], pp. 36–64), followed by some scholars. Nehemiah’s mission (Neth. 2:1) belongs to the twentieth year of A. I (445). The favor shown to Ezra’s restoration (Ezr. 7:1–23), and later to Nehemiah, his cupbearer at court and in constant relations with the king (Neh. 2:1–8; 5:14; 13:6), as well as the prohibition subsequently imposed on Ezra (4:11–22), fit the policy of A., to whom the loyalty of the Jews, situated along the route to Egypt, appeared valuable, and every suspicion in
In the Septuagint version of Esther, the name of A. (I?) appears from beginning to end, Ahasuerus (v.) is erroneously identified.
2) A. II Mnemon (405 [404]–358 B.C.), eldest son of Darius II, began by subduing the rebellion of his brother Cyrus the Younger, who, after unsuccessfully attempting to kill him, marched against him with 50,000 men (rather than 100,000), including 13,000 Greeks who, after the defeat at Cunaxa (3 September 401), where Cyrus was killed, withdrew in a force of 10,000 under the leadership of Xenophon (Anabasis). The war begun by the new satrap of Sardis, Tissaphernes (400), against Sparta and Athens ended with the “Antalcidas” or “King’s” Peace (387): Ionia, lost under A. I (449–448), was restored to the Great King. Egypt, however, regained its independence under the Libyan Amyrtaeus (404–398), whose successors Achoris and Nectanebo I, with the aid of the Greek Chabrias, frustrated A.’s repeated attempts at reconquest, while Tachos II (361–359) was prevented from invading Palestine only by the rebellion of Nectanebo II, who had made himself pharaoh. Evagoras seized Cyprus, but then declared himself a vassal of Persia and was recognized as king (380). Asia Minor was convulsed by the rebellion, suppressed only with difficulty, of the satraps Ariobarzanes, Autophradates, Datames, and Orontes. Stateira, A.’s wife, was poisoned by Parysatis. A. died of grief, at the age of 86, over the killing, by conspirators and by Artaxerxes Ochos, of the sons who aspired to the throne.
The inscriptions of A. mention for the first time the deities Mithra and Anâhita; his successor Ochos would name only Mithra in his inscription at Persepolis. A. II had temples erected to Anâhita at Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana (Berossus, in Clement of Alexandria, Protrept., 5, 65). Under his reign A. Van Hoonacker (whose view is shared by J. Vandervorst, J.-B. Pelt, M. Sales, G. Ricciotti, J. Coppens, and L. Delaporte) places Ezra’s restoration, considering it later than Nehemiah’s.
3) A. III Ochos (Oco; 358–337 B.C.), son of A. II and the only survivor of Stateira’s three sons, was so bloodthirsty that he killed 80 of his relatives in order to have no rivals, and energetically suppressed the revolts. After defeating the satrap of Asia Minor, Artabazus (356), who took refuge with Philip of Macedon, he attempted to reoccupy Egypt, the instigator of every rebellion (353). The initial failure fomented the uprisings of Sidon, Cyprus, and Syria (with which Palestine may perhaps have been associated). In 348 A. personally assumed command of the army, defeated Tabnit, king of Sidon, and then, with Mentor of Rhodes, who had gone over to the Persian service with 4,000 Greek mercenaries, occupied all of Egypt (345), where he carried out massacres, including religious ones, among them the killing of the Apis bull, while the pharaoh took refuge in Ethiopia. He was poisoned, together with his sons, by the eunuch Bagoas.
Faustino Salvoni – Antonino Romeo