Artaxerxes II Mnemon: Achaemenid king of the Persian
Empire
Relatives:
- Father: Darius II Nothus
- Mother: Parysatis
- First wife: Statira (daughter of Hydarnes)
- Sons: Darius, Artaxerxes III Ochus, Ariaspes
- Daughter: Apama (married to Pharnabazus),
Rhodogyne (married to Orontes), Amestris, Atossa
- Second wife: name not known
- Son: Arsames
Main deeds:
- Real name: Arsaces
- Accession on 3 April 404
- 404: Outbreak of civil war: Artaxerxes'
brother Cyrus the Younger revolts
- 404: In Egypt: revolt of Amyrtaeus
- 401: Battle of Cunaxa: Cyrus army
defeats Artaxerxes' army, but Cyrus dies in
action
- 401/400: Return of the Ten Thousand
- 396: The Spartan king Agesilaus invades
Asia
- 395: The Athenian admiral Conon,
commanding a Persian navy, captures Rhodes
and opens a naval offensive against Sparta
- 394: Recall of Agesilaus
- 386: King's Peace
- 385 and 383: Pharnabazus and Tithraustes
lead an army against Egypt, but the Egyptian
king Achoris is able to ward off the
invasion
- Early 370's?: Wars against the Cadusians
- 373: Failed attempt to reconquer Egypt,
where Nectanebo I has become pharaoh
- c.370: Revolt of Datames
- 367: Beginning of the Satrap's Revolt:
Ariobarzanes revolts in Hellespontine
Phrygia; Maussolus of Caria, Orontes of
Armenia, Autophradates of Lydia, and Datames
join him
- 362: Assassination of Datames; end of
the Satrap's Revolt
- Death in February or the first half of
March 358
Artaxerxes II Memnon (Old Persian: Artaxšaçrā, Persian: اردشیر - Ardašir,
Ancient Greek: Αρταξέρξης) (ca. 436 – 358 BC) was king of Persia from 404 BC
until his death. He defended his position against his brother Cyrus the Younger,
who was defeated and killed at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BC, and against a
revolt of the provincial governors, the satraps (366 – 358 BC). He also became
involved in a war with Persia's erstwhile allies, the Spartans, who, under
Agesilaus, invaded Asia Minor. To keep the Spartans busy, Artaxerxes subsidized
their enemies in Greece—the Athenians, Thebans, and Corinthians, especially—to
keep them busy back at home, in what would become known as the Corinthian War.
In 386 BC, Artaxerxes II betrayed his allies and came to an arrangement with
Sparta, and in the Treaty of Antalcidas he forced his erstwhile allies to come
to terms. This treaty restored control of the Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolis
on the Anatolian coast to the Persians, while giving Sparta dominance on the
Greek mainland.
Although thus rather successful against the Greeks, Artaxerxes had more trouble
with the Egyptians, who had successfully revolted against him at the beginning
of his reign. An attempt to reconquer Egypt in 373 BC was completely
unsuccessful, but in his waning years the Persians did manage to defeat a joint
Egyptian–Spartan effort to conquer Phoenicia.
He is reported to have had a number of wives, chief among whom was a Greek woman
of Phocaea named Aspasia (not the same as the concubine of Pericles). He also is
said to have loved a young eunuch by the name of Tiridates, who died "as he was
emerging from childhood". His death caused Artaxerxes enormous grief, and there
was public mourning for him throughout the empire as an offering to the king
from his subjects. |