Achaemenids
Artaxerxes IV (Arses)
اردشیر چهارم (ارشک)
- Reign
- 338–336 BCE
- Dynasty
- Achaemenids
- Persian page
- فارسی
Featured dossier
Artaxerxes IV: Bagoas’ puppet king
The youngest son of Artaxerxes III by Atossa, put on the throne after his father was poisoned on the orders of the eunuch Bagoas. At the same moment Philip II of Macedon formed the League of Corinth and sent an advance army into Asia. Arses tried to poison Bagoas, but was poisoned himself and his children were killed (Diodorus 17.5). The trilingual stele of the Letoon at Xanthos may date to his first year.
- years of reign
- ~2
- languages on the Xanthos stele
- 3
Map: two years of reign
Administration & economy338 BCE1 of 4
Made king by Bagoas
Bagoas, the Egyptian-born eunuch and chiliarch, killed Artaxerxes III and his elder sons and put the youngest, Arses, on the throne (Diodorus 17.5.3). At the same time Philip II won Greece at Chaeronea (338).
Certainty: ProbableThe account is Diodorus’; some scholars doubt Bagoas’ role in Artaxerxes III’s death.
Sources: Diodorus Siculus, tr. C. H. Oldfather / C. B. Welles, 1946–1963 · P. Lecoq, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986 · P. Briant, 2002
BattleCampaignBuildingAdministration & economyReligionArrow keys, Home/End and Space work.
Three separate layers
Each section has three layers: “Historical evidence” is only what the sources say; “Philosophical interpretation” is our reading by the standard of property and liberty; “Modern cultural meaning”. Quotations come only from published translations, with references.
Historical evidencePhilosophical interpretationModern cultural meaning
Dossier · 1
Name: Arses or Artaxerxes IV
The Greeks call him Arses, which Lecoq in Iranica explains as a short form of an Iranian name from aršan- “male, manly”. His throne name, from the Babylonian king lists and probably the Xanthos stele, was Artaxerxes; hence Artaxerxes IV.
The throne name claimed continuity with the earlier Artaxerxes; real power, though, lay with the chiliarch.
A formal title without real authority is an empty institution.
Sources: P. Lecoq, Encyclopaedia Iranica · H. Metzger et al.
Dossier · 2
Xanthos: a land endowment and a civic contract
The Letoon stele (Fethiye Museum) records the foundation of a cult of two Carian gods: the citizens endowed land, fixed annual revenues, a priest and tax exemptions, and wrote a curse on anyone who breaks it. The Aramaic text adds the satrap’s sanction. It is one of the clearest pieces of evidence that cities in the Achaemenid realm could create their own property and institutions with royal approval.
Here, unlike at court, the rules are clear: property, revenue, office-holder and guarantee, all in writing.
A registered endowment, approved by the state but run by the local community, is a model of civil society.
Sources: H. Metzger et al. · P. Briant
Synthesis
Arses’ two years, between Chaeronea and Alexander’s rise, were the worst moment for court chaos. Iranica counts the chain of royal murders among the causes of Persia’s weakness before Alexander.
Bibliography
- Diodorus Siculus, tr. C. H. Oldfather / C. B. Welles, Library of History, books 12–17 (Loeb) (1946–1963). A 1st-century BCE historian; his dates are sometimes displaced.
- Arrian, tr. E. J. Chinnock, The Anabasis of Alexander (1884). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46976Based on Ptolemy and Aristobulus, Alexander’s companions; the Macedonian view.
- H. Metzger et al., Fouilles de Xanthos VI: La stèle trilingue du Létôon (1979).
- P. Lecoq, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Arses (1986). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arses-greek-rendering-of-an-old-persian-name-used-as-a-hypocoristic/
- P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (2002).
- A. Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (2007).
Artaxerxes III, his fatherDarius III, his successorThe Achaemenid dynasty