ARTASERSES. – A Greek form ('Αρταξέφης; Heb. 'Artahāšād'; Assyrian Artakastus; from Persian Artahāšārd, "the great lion") of three Achaemenid kings.
1) A. I Longimanus (465–424 BC), younger son of the assassinated Xerxes, barely escaped the regicide Artabanus, and after two battles killed (462) his elder brother Hystaspes, his rival to the throne supported by the Bactrians.
With 300,000 infantry and 300 Phoenician ships under the Syrian satrap Megabyzus, he then invaded Egypt, freed the few subjects still loyal to him near Memphis, and defeated (454) the Libyan king Inaros, who had rebelled against Persia in 460 with the help of Mania and Athenian hoplites and had killed the satrap (since 484) Achaemenes, brother of King Xerxes. But a subsequent Athenian victory (449/8) in the waters off Cyprus induced A. to make the Peace of Athens or of Cimon, in which the Athenians, while renouncing all claims to Cyprus and Egypt, were granted control of the Aegean (448). He finally came to terms with Megabyzus and his own son, who had rebelled in Syria and Lydia. With A.’s death, a new series of civil wars began, which ended only with Darius II (v.).
The return of the Jews led by Ezra (v.) is traditionally dated to the 7th year of A. I (458); 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, places it instead in the 7th year of A. II (398). Nehemiah’s mission (Neh 2:1) belongs to the 20th year of A. I (445). The favor shown to Ezra’s restoration (Ezra 7:1–23), then to Nehemiah, cupbearer at his court and in constant relations with the king (Neh 2:1–8; 5:14; 13:6), as well as the later prohibition against Ezra (Ezra 4:11–22), suit A.’s policy, in which the loyalty of the Jews, positioned on the route to Egypt, was valuable, and any suspicion in this regard quickly took on substance. In the Septuagint version of Esther, A.’s name (I?) appears throughout, with which Ahasuerus (v.) is mistakenly identified.
2) A. II Mnemon (405 [404]–358 BC), eldest son of Darius II, began by crushing the rebellion of his brother Cyrus the Younger, who after an unsuccessful attempt to kill him marched against him with 30,000 men (rather than 100,000), of whom 13,000 were Greeks; after the defeat at Cunaxa (3 Sept. 401), where Cyrus was killed, they withdrew in 10,000 under the leadership of Xenophon (Anabasis). The Peace of “Antalcidas” or “of the King” (387) ended the war begun by the new satrap of Sardis, Tissaphernes (400), against Sparta and Athens: the King’s lost Ionia was restored (lost under A. I, 449–448). Egypt, however, regained independence under the Libyan Amyrtaeus (404–398), whose successors Achoris and Nepherites I, with the help of the Greek Chabrias, frustrated repeated attempts at reconquest by A., while Tachos II (361–359) was prevented from invading Palestine only by the rebellion of Nepherites II, who had made himself pharaoh. Evagoras seized Cyprus but then declared himself a Persian vassal and was recognized as king (380). Asia Minor was shaken by the rebellion, barely quelled, of the satraps Ariobarzanes, Autophradates, Datames, Orontes, and Struthas. Stateira, wife of A., was poisoned by Parysatis. A. died of grief, at the age of 86, over the killing, at the hands of conspirators and of Artaserxes Ochus, of his sons who aspired to the throne.
In A.’s inscriptions, the deities Mithra and Anahita appear for the first time; his successor Ochus would mention only Mithra in his inscription at Persepolis. A. II built temples to Anahita at Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana (Berosus, in Clement of Alexandria, Protrept., 5, 65). Under his reign, A. Van Hoonacker (followed by J. Vandervorst, J.-B. Pelt, M. Sales, G. Ricciotti, J. Coppens, L. Delaporte) places the restoration of Ezra, considered later than Nehemiah.
3) A. III Ochus (Oco; 358–337 BC), son of A. II, the sole survivor of the three sons of Statira, was so bloodthirsty that he killed 80 of his relatives to prevent competition, and energetically suppressed revolts. Defeating the satrap of Asia Minor, Artabazus (356), who fled to Philip of Macedon, he sought to subdue Egypt, instigator of every rebellion (353). Initial failure fomented revolts in Sidon, Cyprus, and Syria (perhaps including Palestine). In 348 A. personally took command of the army, defeated Tabnit, king of Sidon, and then, with Mentor of Rhodes who had brought 4,000 Greek mercenaries into Persian service, occupied all of Egypt (345), where he committed religious massacres, including the killing of the Apis bull, while the pharaoh fled to Ethiopia. He died poisoned, along with his sons, by the eunuch Bagoses.
Faustino Salvoni – Antonino Romeo