Artabazus

Artabazus was the name of two satraps of Hellespontine Phrygia (now northwest Turkey), under the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia.

The elder Artabazus, son of Pharnaces, was one of the generals in Xerxes' invasion of Greece, in charge of the reserve forces guarding the route back to Asia, and responsible for suppressing a revolt in Potidaea. The invasion ended with Mardonius, ignoring advice from Artabazus and others, met the Greeks in pitched battle at Plataea, and was defeated (479 BC). The Greeks followed up their victory by sailing to Ionia, where they destroyed the garrisoning forces under Tigranes at Mycale in the same year. Artabazus, however, managed to lead a large portion of the Persian army out of Greece and back to Ionia.

As a reward, Artabazus was made satrap of Phrygia. This office was passed down to his descendants. He was either succeeded by his son Pharnbazus, who is mostly unknown, or by his grandson Pharnaces, who is known to have been satrap at the outset of the Peloponnesian War. Pharnaces was in turn succeeded by his son, another Pharnabazus, who is well known from his rivalry with Tissaphernes and wars against the Spartans.

The younger Artabazus was the son of this Pharnabazus, and became satrap after Ariobarzanes, who took part in a revolt against the emperor, was crucified in 362 BC. He himself revolted on the death of Artaxerxes II, four years later, but by 363 BC had run out of support and forced to flee. A decade later he was pardoned. When Alexander the Great invaded, Artabazus surrendered and became one of his officials, later being installed as satrap of Bactria.