Achaemenids
Sogdianus
سغدیانوس
- Reign
- 424–423 BCE, 6 months 15 days (Ctesias)
- Dynasty
- Achaemenids
- Persian page
- فارسی
Featured dossier
Sogdianus (Sekyndianos): the king the army abandoned
Artaxerxes I’s son by Alogyne of Babylon, who killed his brother Xerxes II and, according to Ctesias, was king for six months and fifteen days. The cavalry and the satraps went over to another half-brother, Ochus, satrap of Hyrcania; Sogdianus surrendered on a sworn promise of safety and was put to death in ashes. Ctesias calls him “Sekyndianos”.
- months of reign (Ctesias)
- 6½
- months per Diodorus
- 7
Map: from Susa to Hyrcania
Administration & economy424/423 BCE1 of 3
The throne by fratricide
After killing Xerxes II, Sogdianus made Menostanes his chiliarch. Ctesias says he had Bagorazus, his father’s trusted eunuch, stoned, which turned the army against him.
Certainty: DisputedCtesias is almost the only source and no Babylonian document knows either king; the order and length of the reigns come from him.
Sources: Ctesias of Cnidus (via Photius’ epitome), c. 390 BCE; tr. J. H. Freese 1920 · H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1994
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
Ctesias’ king, not Babylon’s
Ctesias gives Sogdianus six months and fifteen days, Diodorus (12.71) seven months. The Babylonian documents do not know him. Iranica suggests the struggle for the throne took place in Darius II’s first months rather than before them.
Sogdianus had the sword, but neither the army nor the satraps. Power without a legitimacy others accept does not last.
A sworn safe-conduct that was broken is a reminder that a ruler’s promise is worth little without an independent court.
Sources: Ctesias of Cnidus (via Photius’ epitome) · Diodorus Siculus, tr. C. H. Oldfather / C. B. Welles · H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Encyclopaedia Iranica
Dossier · 2
Traces in the Murašû archive
Stolper showed that several people Ctesias places on Sogdianus’ or Darius’ side, Parysatis, Darius’ wife, among them, appear in the Murašû tablets at Nippur as landholders. In Darius’ second year mortgages increased, perhaps a result of the costs of the succession war.
The succession war took its cost from Babylonian smallholders: taxes and military service, and then loans secured on land.
Power struggles in the capital are paid for by people mortgaging their land in the provinces.
Sources: M. W. Stolper · H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Encyclopaedia Iranica
Synthesis
Sogdianus shows that in the Achaemenid empire killing a king was easier than succeeding him: the army, the satraps and the queens decided who stayed.
Bibliography
- Ctesias of Cnidus (via Photius’ epitome), Persica, §§ 44–64 (c. 390 BCE; tr. J. H. Freese 1920). A Greek physician at the court of Artaxerxes II; full of court romance and unreliable, but almost the only source for the successions of 424–423.
- 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.
- M. W. Stolper, Entrepreneurs and Empire: The Murašû Archive, the Murašû Firm, and Persian Rule in Babylonia (1985).
- M. W. Stolper, The death of Artaxerxes I, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 16 (1983).
- H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Darius iv. Darius II (1994). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/darius-iv/
- P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (2002).