Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of"
2. ARTAXERXES II., surnamed _Mnemon_, the eldest son of Darius II., whom
1173 words | Chapter 141
he succeeded in the spring of 404. According to Ctesias (_Pers._ 57;
Plut. _Artax._ i.) he was formerly called Arsaces or Arsikas, whereas
Dinon (Plut. _Artax._ i.) calls him Oarses. This is corroborated by a
Babylonian tablet with observations of the moon (Brit. Mus. Sp. ii. 749;
_Zeitsch. f. Assyriologie_, vii. 223), which is dated from the 26th year
of "Arshu, who is Artakshatsu," i.e. 379 B.C. (cp. Ed. Meyer,
_Forschungen zur allen Geschichte_, ii. 466 ff.). When Artaxerxes II.
mounted the throne, the power of Athens had been broken by Lysander, and
the Greek towns in Asia were again subjects of the Persian empire. But
his whole reign is a time of continuous decay; the original force of the
Persians had been exhausted in luxury and intrigues, and the king,
though personally brave and good-natured, was quite dependent upon his
favourites and his harem, and especially upon his mother Parysatis. In
the beginning of his reign falls the rebellion of his brother Cyrus, who
was secretly favoured by Parysatis and by Sparta. Although Cyrus was
defeated at Cunaxa, this rebellion was disastrous inasmuch as it opened
to the Greeks the way into the interior of the empire, and demonstrated
that no oriental force was able to withstand a band of well-trained
Greek soldiers. Subsequently Greek mercenaries became indispensable not
only to the king but also to the satraps, who thereby gained the means
for attempting successful rebellions, into which they were provoked by
the weakness of the king, and by the continuous intrigues between the
Persian magnates. The reign is, therefore, a continuous succession of
rebellions. Egypt soon revolted anew and could not be subdued again.
When in 399 war broke out between Sparta and Persia, the Persian troops
in Asia Minor were quite unable to resist the Spartan armies. The active
and energetic Persian general Pharnabazus succeeded in creating a fleet
by the help of Evagoras, king of Salamis in Cyprus, and the Athenian
commander Conon, and destroyed the Spartan fleet at Cnidus (August 394).
This victory enabled the Greek allies of Persia (Thebes, Athens, Argos,
Corinth) to carry on the Corinthian war against Sparta, and the Spartans
had to give up the war in Asia Minor. But it soon became evident that
the only gainers by the war were the Athenians, who in 389, under
Thrasybulus, tried to found their old empire anew (see DELIAN LEAGUE).
At the same time Evagoras attempted to conquer the whole of Cyprus, and
was soon in open rebellion. The consequence was that, when in 388 the
Spartan admiral Antalcidas (q.v.) came to Susa, the king was induced to
conclude a peace with Sparta by which Asia fell to him and European
Greece to Sparta. After the peace, Evagoras was attacked. He lost his
conquests, but had to be recognized as independent king of Salamis (380
B.C.). Two expeditions against Egypt (385-383 and 374-372) ended in
complete failure. At the same period there were continuous rebellions in
Asia Minor; Pisidia, Paphlagonia, Bithynia and Lycia, threw off the
Persian yoke and Hecatomnus, the satrap of Caria, obtained an almost
independent position. Similar wars were going on against the mountain
tribes of Armenia and Iran, especially against the Cadusians on the
Caspian Sea. In this war Artaxerxes is said to have distinguished
himself personally (380 B.C.), but got into such difficulties in the
wild country that he was glad when Tiribazus succeeded in concluding a
peace with the Cadusian chieftains.
By the peace of Antalcidas the Persian supremacy was proclaimed over
Greece; and in the following wars all parties, Spartans, Athenians,
Thebans, Argives continually applied to Persia for a decision in their
favour. After the battle of Leuctra, when the power of Thebes was
founded by Epaminondas, Pelopidas went to Susa (367) and restored the
old alliance between Persia and Thebes. The Persian supremacy, however,
was not based upon the power of the empire, but only on the discord of
the Greeks. Shortly after the edict by which the king had proclaimed his
alliance with Thebes, and the conditions of the general peace which he
was going to impose upon Greece, his weakness became evident, for since
366 all the satraps of Asia Minor (Datames, Ariobarzanes, Mausolus,
Orontes, Artabazus) were in rebellion again, in close alliance with
Athens, Sparta and Egypt. The king could do little against them; even
Autophradates, satrap of Lydia, who had remained faithful, was forced
for some time to unite himself with the rebels. But every one of the
allies mistrusted all the others; and the sole object of every satrap
was to improve his condition and his personal power, and to make a
favourable peace with the king, for which his neighbours and former
allies had to pay the costs. The rebellion was at last put down by a
series of treacheries and perfidious negotiations. Some of the rebels
retained their provinces; others were punished, as opportunity offered.
Mithradates betrayed his own father Ariobarzanes, who was crucified, and
murdered Datames, to whom he had introduced himself as a faithful ally.
When the long reign of Artaxerxes II. came to its close in the autumn of
359 the authority of the empire had been restored almost everywhere.
Artaxerxes himself had done very little to obtain this result. In fact,
in the last years of his reign he had sunk into a perfect dotage. All
his time was spent in the pleasures of his harem, the intrigues of which
were further complicated by his falling in love with and marrying his
own daughter Atossa (according to the Persian religion a marriage
between the nearest relations is no incest). At the same time, his sons
were quarrelling about the succession; one of them, Ochus, induced the
father by a series of intrigues to condemn to death three of his older
brothers, who stood in his way. Shortly afterwards, Artaxerxes II. died.
In this reign an important innovation took place in the Persian
religion. Berossus (in Clemens Alex. _Protrept._ i. 5. 65) tells us that
the Persians knew of no images of the gods until Artaxerxes II. erected
images of Anaitis in Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, Bactra,
Damascus, Sardis. This statement is proved correct by the inscriptions;
all the former kings name only Auramazda (Ahuramazda), but Artaxerxes
II. in his building inscriptions from Susa and Ecbatana invokes
Ahuramazda, Anahita and Mithra. These two gods belonged to the old
popular religion of the Iranians, but had until then been neglected by
the true Zoroastrians; now they were introduced into the official
worship much in the way in which the cult of the saints came into the
Christian religion. About the history of Artaxerxes II. we are
comparatively well informed from Greek sources; for the earlier part of
his reign from Ctesias and Xenophon (_Anabasis_), for the later times
from Dinon of Ephesus, the historian of the Persians (from whom the
account of Justin is derived), from Ephorus (whose account is quoted by
Diodorus) and others. Upon these sources is based the biography of the
king by Plutarch.
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