Achaemenids
Bessus (Artaxerxes V)
بسوس (اردشیر پنجم)
- Reign
- 330–329 BCE, in Bactria (claimed)
- Dynasty
- Achaemenids
- Persian page
- فارسی
Featured dossier
Bessus: the claimant after Darius
Satrap of Bactria and a kinsman of Darius III, who with Nabarzanes and Barsaentes seized the king and killed him in July 330, then in Bactria put on the upright tiara and took the name Artaxerxes (Arrian 3.25.3). His own allies, Spitamenes among them, handed him to Alexander and he was executed at Ecbatana. No one but he and his supporters recognised his kingship; we flag it accordingly.
- year of claimed kingship
- ~1
Map: from Hecatompylos to Bactria
Administration & economyJuly 330 BCE1 of 3
The killing of Darius
Bessus and his accomplices carried Darius off in chains and, as Alexander closed in, wounded him and left him; the king died before Alexander arrived (Arrian 3.21).
Certainty: Secure (contemporary source)
Sources: Arrian, tr. E. J. Chinnock, 1884 · Quintus Curtius Rufus, tr. J. C. Rolfe, 1946
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
Kingship or rebellion?
Bessus was of Achaemenid kin and commanded the Bactrian cavalry at Gaugamela (Arrian 3.8). The Greek and Roman sources call him a regicide and usurper. For his eastern supporters, though, he was the continuation of Achaemenid kingship against an invader. No coin or document of his reign survives.
Alexander punished Bessus with the Persian penalty for regicide to present himself as Darius’ legitimate heir; Bessus’ punishment was Alexander’s propaganda.
Legitimacy comes neither from force nor from title but from others’ acceptance; Bessus had none of these.
Sources: Arrian, tr. E. J. Chinnock · Quintus Curtius Rufus, tr. J. C. Rolfe · P. Briant
Synthesis
With Bessus the last claim to Achaemenid kingship ended. Whether to count him as “Artaxerxes V” is a decision about who has the right to make a king.
Bibliography
- 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.
- Quintus Curtius Rufus, tr. J. C. Rolfe, History of Alexander (Loeb) (1946). A 1st-century CE Roman; rhetorical, but sometimes drawing on sources sympathetic to Darius.
- P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (2002).
- P. Briant, Darius in the Shadow of Alexander (2015). How Darius III was constructed by his conquerors’ historians.