Tissaphernes

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Tissaphernes has been described, on the one hand, as impetuous and forthright, on the other, as a liar and treacherous deceiver (to Xenophon, he seemed "the supreme example of faithlessness and oath-breaking in the Anabasis"). Nevertheless, as one scholar has noted, "it is only fair to him to say . . . that in an epoch when disloyalty was becoming the normal he remained the most loyal subject of the two Kings whom he served". That Tissaphernes appeared to the Greeks as one of their most dangerous enemies and no doubt the model of an unscrupulous diplomat is not surprising; this bias has so deeply marked Greek traditions that it now seems nearly impossible to form a balanced judgment about him, especially as no Persian sources are available and the pertinent sections of the Lycian Xanthos stele are not yet understood. [1]

Following the death of Tissaphernes, Caria re-established a line of semi-independent local dynasts, still under the umbrella of the Achaemenid Empire, the dynasty of the Hecatomnids. [8]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 ČIΘRAFARNAH, Rüdiger Schmitt, Encyclopaedia Iranica
  2. J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (USA: Oxford University Press, 2006: ISBN   0-19-929668-5), p. 329.
  3. Tavernier, Jan (2007), Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (c. 550–330 B.C.): Linguistic Study of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Peeters, pp. 154–155, 158, ISBN   978-90-429-1833-7 .
  4. 1 2 Smith, William (1867). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown. pp. 1154–1156.
  5. 1 2 3 Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Meyer, Eduard (1911). "Tissaphernes". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1015.
  6. Plutarch. Ed. by A.H. Clough. "Artaxerxes," Plutarch's Lives. 1996. Project Gutenberg
  7. Meyer 1911.
  8. "About 492 BCE, after the execution of Tissaphernes, the Persians made Caria an independent satrapy and entrusted it to Hecatomnus, the local dynast of Mylasa, whose ancestors appear in the pages of Herodotus." in Gagarin, Michael (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. p. 53. ISBN   9780195170726.

Sources

Tissaphernes
Tissaphernes portrait.jpg
Portrait of Tissaphernes (445 BC–395 BC), from his coinage. Most of his coins are inscribed ΤΙΣΣΑ ("TISSA") in Greek under his portrait, permitting identification.
Satrap of Lydia
In office
415 BC 408 BC