Masistes
Encyclopedia
478 BC
Year 478 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercus and Structus...
) was a Persian
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
prince of the Achaemenid Dynasty, son of king Darius I (reign: 520-486 BC
486 BC
Year 486 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Viscellinus and Rutilus...
) and of his wife Atossa
Atossa
Atossa was an Achaemenid queen and daughter of Cyrus the Great and his wife, Cassandane...
, and full brother of king Xerxes I (reign: 486
486 BC
Year 486 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Viscellinus and Rutilus...
-465 BC
465 BC
Year 465 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Barbatus...
). He was satrap
Satrap
Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
(governor) of Bactria
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
during his brother's reign, where he attempted to start a revolt in 478 BC
478 BC
Year 478 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercus and Structus...
.
Chief marshal
Greco-Persian Wars
The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and city-states of the Hellenic world that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus...
(480
480 BC
Year 480 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Cincinnatus...
-479 BC
479 BC
Year 479 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Rutilus...
). Along with general Mardonius
Mardonius
Mardonius was a leading Persian military commander during the Persian Wars with Greece in the early 5th century BC.-Early years:Mardonius was the son of Gobryas, a Persian nobleman who had assisted the Achaemenid prince Darius when he claimed the throne...
, he commanded the march column that crossed Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
along the coast; however, he was almost completely absent during the course of the war, including the battles of Salamis
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
and Plataea
Battle of Plataea
The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes...
.
He reappeared close to the end of the war, when he fought in the Battle of Mycale
Battle of Mycale
The Battle of Mycale was one of the two major battles that ended the second Persian invasion of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars. It took place on or about August 27, 479 BC on the slopes of Mount Mycale, on the coast of Ionia, opposite the island of Samos...
(479 BC
479 BC
Year 479 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Rutilus...
). According to Herodotus, the battle was just about to take place at sea, but the Persians decided to come ashore in Ionia
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
, Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, and fight on land. The Greek and the Persian armies finally fought in Mycale, and the Persians were completely defeated. Commanders Tigranes and Mardontes died during the battle, but Artayntes and Itamithres, as well as Masistes, managed to escape. According to Herodotus, on their way to Sardis
Sardis
Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkey's Manisa Province...
, where the king stayed, Masistes accused Artayntes of cowardice and blamed him of being "worse than a woman". In response, Artayntes unsheathed his sword and tried to kill Masistes, but was stopped by a Carian named Xenagoras of Hallicarnasus.
Masistes' family stayed near the battle, in Sardis, Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
, which was a common practice of the nobility of the Persian Empire. It is interesting that in Herodotus' world, while Masistes was fighting, his brother, king Xerxes, seduced Masistes's wife (see below).
The tale
Masistes is one of the main characters in a bloody episode of the Herodotus' Histories (IX 108-110). Herodotus relates that, after his defeat in Greece, Xerxes fell in love with the wife of Masistes, but failed in all attempts to win her favor. In order to be closer to his sister-in-law, Xerxes married his son Darius to his niece ArtaynteArtaynte
Artaynte was the wife of the Crown Prince Darius, and also the wife of Xerxes I, brother of Darius, who was also married to Amestris, Xerxes son, and married to Atossa, the Achaemenid queen and daughter of Cyrus the Great and former wife of Xerxes father, Darius I, she was also courted to bring...
, a daughter of Masistes. The wedding was celebrated in Sardis, but when the court returned to Susa
Susa
Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....
Xerxes decided that he wanted the daughter rather than the mother, and Artaynte became his lover. One day, Xerxes visited Artaynte wearing a robe that had been woven by queen Amestris
Amestris
Amestris or Amastris was the wife of Xerxes I of Persia, mother of king Artaxerxes I of Persia. She was known to have been poorly regarded by ancient Greek historians....
; he offered Artaynte to grant her whatever wish she desired. She chose the robe, and when she used it in public the affair was discovered.
When Amestris heard the news she sought revenge, not from Artaynte, strangely enough, but from her mother, the wife of Masistes. It was customary in Persia that on the king's birthday he had to grant all the wishes he was asked, so Amestris waited until that date to ask Xerxes to dispose of the life of Masistes' wife. Under Amestris' orders, Masistes' wife was tortured and mutilated: she cut off her breasts, nose, ears, lips and tongue. In the meantime, Xerxes offered Masistes the hand of one of his daughters. Masistes refused, and when he saw his mutilated wife he fled to Bactria to start a revolt. However, he was intercepted on his way by troops sent by the king, and put to death along with his followers and his three sons.
Historical background
The tale refers to an ill-fated attempt of Masistes to lead a revolt against his brother Xerxes. Although the exact date is unknown, it must not have happened long after the battle of Mycale (479 BC479 BC
Year 479 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Rutilus...
), perhaps in 478 BC
478 BC
Year 478 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercus and Structus...
.
It was originally considered that Xerxes, affected by his defeats in Greece, became involved in harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
intrigues that would cause turmoil in the court and eventually result in the decadence and ruin of the Empire. This view is widely criticized by more modern authors. Many of the episode's themes appear in many legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
ary tales of Persian origin - the plot is the same, only the characters are interchanged. Thus, although the tale is based on Persian oral accounts of Masistes' revolt, it is impossible to consider it as a historical fact and to derive literal conclusions from it.
Relating to this, it has been argued that the royal robe
Robe
A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. A robe is distinguished from a cape or cloak by the fact that it usually has sleeves. The English word robe derives from Middle English robe , borrowed from Old French robe , itself taken from the Frankish word *rouba , and is related to the word rob...
(which Amestris wove for Xerxes in the story) was not just a circumstantial cloth but a symbol of the Persian monarchy. According to this reasoning, and within the symbolic context of Persian culture of this period, when Artaynte asked Xerxes for his robe she was actually asking for the throne, although not for her, as she was married to the heir, prince Darius, but perhaps for her father Masistes. This could explain why Amestris punished Masistres' wife instead of her daughter Artaynte. It has also been noted that the punishment that Masistes' wife received was usually reserved to rebels.
Other legendary Persian episodes share the theme of the royal robe, amonge these:
- Cyrus the GreatCyrus the GreatCyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
receives the royal Mede robe when he marries the daughter of Mede king AstyagesAstyagesAstyages Astyages Astyages (spelled by Herodotus as Ἀστυάγης - Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian: Ištumegu, was the last king of the Median Empire, r...
(Xenephon, Cyropaedia VIII 5 18). - Cyrus the YoungerCyrus the YoungerCyrus the Younger, son of Darius II of Persia and Parysatis, was a Persian prince and general. The time of his birth is unknown, but he died in 401 B.C. The history of Cyrus and of the retreat of the Greeks is told by Xenophon in his Anabasis. Another account, probably from Sophaenetus of...
is just about to kill his brother, king Artaxerxes II, but stops when he sees him dressing himself with the royal robe (PlutarchPlutarchPlutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, Artoxerxes III 1-4). - During a hunting expedition, nobleman TiribazusTiribazusTiribazus or Teribazus, a Persian general and Persian satrap of Western Armenia and later Lydia in western Anatolia.He was highly regarded by the Persian King Artaxerxes II, and when he was present, so Xenophon tells us, no one else had the honour of helping the sovereign to mount his horse.At the...
wears the royal robe of king Artaxerxes II, causing the disgust of the courtiers, as it is forbidden (PlutarchPlutarchPlutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, Artoxerxes V 2).
Masistes and mathishta
It has been noted that the name Masistes (which the Greek sources give) is related to the Persian title mathishta (maθišta, "the greatest", "the highest", "the longest"; "chief [of the troop]"; as a title, "the greatest after the king", "the second after the king") given to the royal heir designated by the king. The problem lies in that the heir designated by Darius I is Xerxes, not Masistes, although the succession was not free of conflict. According to Herodotus, the eldest son by Darius was ArtabazanesArtabazanes
Artabazanes of Media Atropatene was a ruler of the Persian Atropatene kingdom of Armenia. He ruled 221 BCE or 220 BCE, and was contemporary of Antiochus III the Great....
, but he had been born prior to Darius' ascent to the throne. Xerxes was the first-born son of Darius after he was crowned king, and he was also son of Atossa
Atossa
Atossa was an Achaemenid queen and daughter of Cyrus the Great and his wife, Cassandane...
, the daughter of Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
, founder of the empire. After many disputes in the court, Darius finally chose Xerxes. This is corroborated by Xerxes himself, who in his "Harem Inscription" of Persepolis
Persepolis
Perspolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire . Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid...
states that his father designated him mathishta despite having other sons.(XPf)
Pompeius Trogus, a later author, relates the same story, but refers to Artabazanes as Ariamenes. On the other hand, Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
refers that Xerxes, when he is chosen heir, offers Ariamenes the position of "second after the king". The Ariamenes who appears in Plutarch, although he plays the role of the Artabazanes of Herodotus and the Ariamenes of Trogus, also reminds us of Masistes. First, Ariamenes governs over Bactria in Plutarch's version, just as Masistes does in Herodotus. Also, the phrase "second after the king" coincides with the meaning of the title mathishta, which seems to be related to the name of Masistes. However, in Plutarch, the "second after the king" refers to the most powerful person after the king himself, but not to the heir, as occurs with the title mathishta.
It is possible, as it has been argued, that Masistes was not the real name of the younger brother of Xerxes, but simply his title, (mathishta). Facing this possibility, it is important to note that Masistes was in fact a given name used at the time. In a clay cuneiform
Cuneiform
Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label...
tablet ( a commercial document, specifically) from the Babylonian city of Nippur dated to 429 BC
429 BC
Year 429 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tricipitinus and Fidenas...
(Artaxerxes I reign) mentions certain Masishtu (Masištu), whose name has been identified as the Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
form of Masistes.