Documents for "Ancient History, Middle East: Biographies":

• Achaemenids dynasty of ancient Persia. They were descended presumably from one Achaemenes, a minor ruler in a mountainous district of SW Iran. His successors, when Elam declined, spread their power westward. Cyrus the Great established the Persian rule by his conquest of Astyages of Media. The Achaemenids (c.550-330 BC) were important for their development of government administration, the appearance of literature written in cuneiform , and the spread of Zoroastrianism ; during this period there was also a great flourishing of Persian art and architecture. The Achaemenid rulers after Cyrus were Cambyses II, the impostor Smerdis, Darius I, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Xerxes II, Sogdianus, Darius II, Artaxerxes II (opposed by Cyrus the Younger),...

• Agrippa in Palestinian history: see Herod.

• Alexander Balas d. 145 BC, ruler of Syria, putative son of Antiochus IV. He seized power from his uncle Demetrius I (c.152 BC); Jonathan the Maccabee supported him. He died in battle against Ptolemy Philometor.

• Alyattes d. 560 BC, king of Lydia. During his reign, Alyattes expanded his kingdom. He made peace (585 BC) with Cyaxares of Media, continued the Lydian conquest of the Ionian cities of Asia Minor, drove the...

• Antiochus I (Antiochus Soter) , b. c.324 BC, d. c.262 or 261 BC, king of Syria (280-261? BC), son of Seleucus I. He did not, like his father, seek to expand in Europe. The Seleucid holdings were greatly reduced,...

• Antiochus II (Antiochus Theos) , d. 247 BC, king of Syria (261?-247 BC), son and successor of Antiochus I. In warfare with Ptolemy II he had sporadic successes, but his marriage to Ptolemy's daughter Berenice sealed the peace,...

• Antiochus III (Antiochus the Great), d. 187 BC, king of Syria (223-187 BC), son of Seleucus II and younger brother of Seleucus III, whom he succeeded. At his accession the Seleucid empire was in decline...

• Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) , d. 163 BC, king of Syria (175 BC-163 BC), son of Antiochus III and successor of his brother Seleucus IV. His nephew (later Demetrius I) was held as a hostage in Rome, although still claiming the...

• Aretas dynastic name of the Nabataean kings of Petra. The best-known Aretas was Aretas IV, 9 BC-AD 49, ruler of S Palestine, most of Jordan, N Arabia, and Damascus. His daughter was married to Herod Antipas,...

• Arsaces fl. 250 BC, founder of the Parthian dynasty of the Arsacids, which ruled Persia from c.250 BC to AD 226. Arsaces led a successful revolt against Antiochus II of Syria, when Antiochus was engaged in war with Egypt and trying to put down a revolt in Bactria...

• Arsacids see under Arsaces.

• Artaphernes see Persian Wars.

• Artaxerxes I d. 425 BC, king of ancient Persia (464-425 BC), of the dynasty of the Achaemenis. Artaxerxes is the Greek form of "Ardashir the Persian." He succeeded his father, Xerxes I , in whose assassination he had no part. The later weakness of the Persian Empire is commonly traced to the reign of Artaxerxes, and there were many uprisings in the provinces. The revolt of Egypt,...

• Artaxerxes II d. 358 BC, king of ancient Persia (404-358 BC), son and successor of Darius II. He is sometimes called in Greek Artaxerxes Mnemon [the thoughtful]. Early in his reign Cyrus the Younger attempted to assassinate him and seize the throne. Artaxerxes finally crushed Cyrus' rebellion at the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC), where Cyrus was killed. The story of the Greek contingent in the...

• Artaxerxes III d. 338 BC, king of ancient Persia (358-338 BC), son and successor of Artaxerxes II. He was originally named Ochus and is sometimes called Artaxerxes Ochus. He gained the throne by a general...

• Artemisia fl. 4th cent. BC, ruler of the ancient region of Caria. She was the sister, wife, and successor of Mausolus and erected the mausoleum at Halicarnassus in his memory. A strong ruler, she conquered...

• Ashurbanipal see Assurbanipal.

• Ashurnasirpal II d. 860? BC, king of ancient Assyria (884-860? BC), also called Ashurnazirpal II and Assurnasirbal II. One of the earliest of the Assyrian conquerors, he gained territory as far west as the...

• Assurbanipal or Ashurbanipal , d. 626? BC, king of ancient Assyria (669-633 BC), son and successor of Esar-Haddon. The last of the great kings of Assyria, he drove Taharka out of Egypt and firmly established Necho in power there only to have Necho's son Psamtik revolt in 660 BC and wrest Egypt permanently from Assyria. The uprising took place during a campaign by Assurbanipal against the Elamites and Chaldaeans. His brother, in command at Babylon, also...

• Assurnasirbal II see Ashurnasirpal II.

• Astyages fl. 6th cent. BC, king of the Medes (584-c.550 BC), son and successor of Cyaxares. His rule was harsh, and he was unpopular. His daughter is alleged to have married the elder Cambyses and was said...

• Baladan see Merodach-baladan.

• Berenice c.280-46 BC, queen-consort of ancient Syria; wife of Antiochus II. She was called Berenice Syra. She was the daughter of Ptolemy II, and her marriage (252) to Antiochus II marked a temporary...

• Berenice fl. 6 BC, Jewish princess; daughter of Costobarus and Salome, sister of Herod the Great. She was married to her cousin Aristobulus and bore him a son, Herod Agrippa I. She was accused of having...

• Berenice b. c.AD 28, Jewish princess; daughter of Herod Agrippa I. A very beautiful woman, she was often involved in intrigue. After her first husband died, she was married to her uncle Herod of Chalcis...

• Berodach-baladan see Merodach-baladan.

• Cambyses two kings of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia. Cambyses I was king (c.600 BC) of Ansham, ruling as a vassal of Media. According to Herodotus he married the daughter of the Median king Astyages; some scholars dispute this. Cambyses' son was Cyrus the Great. Cambyses II, d. 521 BC, was the son and successor of Cyrus the Great and ruled as king of ancient Persia (529-521 BC). He disposed of his brother Smerdis in order to gain unchallenged rule. He invaded Egypt, defeating (525 BC) Psamtik at Pelusium and sacking Memphis. His further plans of conquest in Africa were frustrated, and at home an impostor...

• Cyaxares d. 585 BC, king of Media (c.625-585 BC). His name also appears as Umakishtar and Huyakhshtara. In the course of his reign he raised the kingdom of the Medes to a major power in the Middle East...

• Cyrus the Great d. 529 BC, king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the elder Cambyses, and a Median princess, daughter of Astyages. Many historians, following other ancient...

• Cyrus the Younger d. 401 BC, Persian prince, younger son of Darius II and Parysatis. He was his mother's favorite, and she managed to get several satrapies in Asia Minor for him when he was very young. His...

• Darius I (Darius the Great) , d. 486 BC, king of ancient Persia (521-486 BC), called also Dariavaush and Darius Hystaspis (after his father, Hystaspes or Vishtaspa). A distant cousin of Cambyses II (see under Cambyses ), he succeeded to the throne after the fall of the impostor claiming to be Smerdis. The first years of his reign were spent in putting down revolts in Persia, Media, Babylonia, and the East. He then proved himself the true successor of Cyrus the Great and one of the most able of the Achaemenids by revising and increasing Cyrus' use of the satrapies. These provinces were ruled by satraps, who functioned as viceroys and were responsible only to the Great King; the satraps were, however,...

• Darius II d. 404 BC, king of ancient Persia (423?-404 BC); son of Artaxerxes I and a concubine, hence sometimes called Darius Nothus [Darius the bastard]. His rule was not popular or successful, and he spent...

• Darius III (Darius Codomannus) , d. 330 BC, king of ancient Persia (336-330 BC). A cousin of Artaxerxes III, he was raised to the throne by the eunuch Bagoas, who had murdered both Artaxerxes and his son, Arses; Darius in turn...

• Demetrius I (Demetrius Soter) , c.187-150 BC, king of ancient Syria (162-150 BC), son of Seleucus IV. He was sent as a hostage to Rome, where he remained during the reigns of his father and his uncle Antiochus IV. After...

• Demetrius II (Demetrius Nicator) , d. c.125 BC, king of ancient Syria, son of Demetrius I. He was aided against the usurper, Alexander Balas, by Ptolemy VI (Ptolemy Philometer). He married Ptolemy's daughter, Cleopatra Thea, even...

• Esar-Haddon king of ancient Assyria (681-668 BC), son of Sennacherib. Immediately upon ascending the throne he had to put down serious revolts and defeat the Chaldaeans. He was successful in both enterprises. One of the most powerful of the Assyrian kings,...

• Eumenes II fl. 2d cent. BC, son of Attalus I, king of Pergamum (197-159 BC). He managed to expand the wealth and prestige of his state by maintaining an allegiance with Rome for much of his reign. For his assistance in the Roman victory over Antiochus III of Syria, he received all of Antiochus's possessions as far as Taurus. He fell out of favor, however, during the Roman war with Macedonia, because he was suspected of plotting with the enemy. Only...

• Hammurabi fl. 1792-1750 BC, king of Babylonia. He founded an empire that was eventually destroyed by raids from Asia Minor. Hammurabi may have begun building the tower of Babel (Gen. 11.4), which can now be identified with the temple-tower in...

• Hazael fl. 840 BC, king of Damascus; successor and murderer of Benhadad. In the Bible he appears as the ally of the party of Elisha in Israel and later as the conqueror, taking all the Hebrew possessions E of the Jordan, ravaging Judah, and rendering Israel impotent...

• Heliodorus fl. 175 BC, Syrian statesman. The treasurer of Seleucus IV (Seleucus Philopator), he murdered the king and attempted unsuccessfully to usurp the throne. According to the Book of Second Maccabees,...

• Herod dynasty reigning in Palestine at the time of Jesus. As a dynasty the Herods depended largely on the power of Rome. They are usually blamed for the state of virtual anarchy in Palestine at the...

• Herodias see Herod.

• Hystaspes or Hystaspis , Old Persian Vishtaspa, fl. 6th cent. BC, ruler of ancient Persia, father of Darius I. Under him Darius was governor of Parthia. The legendary patron of Zoroaster is also called...

• Khalid (Khalid ibn al-Walid), d. 642, Arab warrior. He assisted the Meccans in attacking (625) Muhammad and the inhabitants of Medina after the battle of Badr. Khalid and the Meccans were victorious in...

• Mardonius d. 479 BC, Persian general; son-in-law of Darius I. Darius sent him (492 BC) to retaliate against Eretria and Athens for aiding the Ionians in the Persian Wars , but his fleet was lost in a storm off...

• Mausolus d. 353 BC, Persian satrap, ruler over Caria (c.376-353 BC). He was always more or less independent. One of the satraps who revolted against Artaxerxes II , he later allied himself with the Persian kings. He extended his power greatly, even to hegemony over Rhodes. After his death his wife, Artemisia, erected at Halicarnassus a tomb that he had...

• Menahem d. c.737 BC, king of Israel (c.749-c.737 BC). He was governor of Tirzah and murdered Shallum for the throne of Samaria. Menahem was made a tributary by Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria, who helped...

• Merodach-baladan fl. 722-702 BC, Chaldaean prince, who usurped (721) the Babylonian throne. Sargon of Assyria put down the allies of Merodach-baladan in Syria and Palestine and eventually drove (c.710) the usurper...

• Mithradates VI (Mithradates Eupator) , c.131 BC-63 BC, king of Pontus, sometimes called Mithradates the Great. He extended his empire until, in addition to Pontus, he held Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and the Black Sea coast beyond the...

• Mithridates VI see Mithradates VI.

• Nabonidus d. 538? BC, last king of the Chaldaean dynasty of Babylonia. He was not of Nebuchadnezzar's family, and it is possible that he usurped the throne. He was absorbed in antiquarian and religious...

• Nabopolassar see Babylonia.

• Nebuchadnezzar d. 562 BC, king of Babylonia (c.605-562 BC), son and successor of Nabopolassar. In his father's reign he was sent to oppose the Egyptians, who were occupying W Syria and Palestine. At Carchemish...

• Odenathus, Septimius d. 267, king of Palmyra. His family (the Septimii) had dominated Palmyra for many years, and Odenathus by his policy of cooperation with Rome raised his state to its zenith. As a Roman general he warred against Shapur I of Persia after the defeat of Valerian. He won (260) a resounding victory over Shapur for Emperor Gallienus and drove the Persians back until he threatened Ctesiphon. He also put down (261) an insurrection against Gallienus in Emesa...

• Pharnabazus d. after 374 BC, Persian governor. He had an important satrapy in Asia Minor under Darius II and Artaxerxes II. He was responsible for the assassination (404 BC) of Alcibiades, and in the same...

• Pharnaces II d. 47 BC, king of Pontus, son of Mithradates VI. In the Roman civil war he overran Colchis and central Asia Minor. Julius Caesar came from Egypt and defeated (47 BC) him at Zela—with such ease...

• Philip half brother of Herod Antipas, called Herod Philip: see Herod , dynasty.

• Philip d. AD 34, tetrarch of Ituraea, son of Herod the Great. He was perhaps the ablest of the Herod dynasty. He is mentioned in the Gospel of St. Luke.

• Phraates kings of Parthia of the dynasty of Arsaces. Phraates II, fl. 130 BC, decisively defeated (129 BC) Antiochus VII of Syria, permanently annexing E Mesopotamia to his kingdom. Phraates IV, d. 2 BC, had an early success in driving (36 BC) Antony out of Parthia. After 31 BC, Phraates had to cope with a stubborn rebellion by one of his generals, who briefly usurped the throne. Phraates...

• Sardanapalus in the Persica of Ctesias , an Assyrian monarch who lived in great luxury. He was besieged in Nineveh by the Medes for two years, at the end of which time he set fire to his palace and burned himself and his court to death...

• Sargon king of Akkad in Mesopotamia (reigned c.2340-c.2305 BC). By conquest he established a great empire that included the whole of Mesopotamia and extended over Syria and Elam, and he controlled...

• Sargon d. 705 BC, king of Assyria (722-705 BC), successor to Shalmaneser V. He completed Shalmaneser's siege of Samaria in 721 BC, thus destroying the northern Israelite kingdom forever. In 720 he defeated a coalition of enemies at...

• Seleucus I (Seleucus Nicator) , d. 280 BC, king of ancient Syria. An able general of Alexander the Great, he played a leading part in the wars of the Diadochi. In the new partition of the empire in 312 BC he received Babylonia. Conquest of Susiana and Media enlarged his holdings, and he invaded NW India. Later (c.305) he yielded part of present...

• Seleucus II (Seleucus Callinicus), d. 226 BC, king of ancient Syria (247-226 BC), son of Antiochus II. On his father's death there was a struggle for the throne between Seleucus and his stepmother, Berenice...

• Senherib see Sennacherib.

• Sennacherib or Senherib, d. 681 BC, king of Assyria (705-681 BC). The son of Sargon, Sennacherib spent most of his reign fighting to maintain the empire established by his father. It is difficult to determine the exact...

• Shalmaneser I d. 1290 BC, king of Assyria. He restored the temple at Assur, established a royal residence at Nineveh, and removed the capital from Assur to Calah, c.18 mi (29 km) S of Nineveh. Shalmaneser III, 859-824 BC, son of Ashurnasirpal, claimed to have defeated (c.854 BC) Benhadad and Ahab , king of Israel, at Karkar (Kirharaseth) on the Orontes. His victory was probably indecisive, since he failed to reach Damascus or fight his other enemies. He received presents from Jehu of Judah...

• Smerdis d. c.528 BC, second son of Cyrus the Great , king of Persia. He is also called Bardiya. He was assassinated by his brother Cambyses II, who kept the murder a secret. Patizithes, the Magian custodian of Cambyses' palace, deposed Cambyses (who...

• Suppiluliumas fl. 14th cent. BC, Hittite king (1390-54 BC). The greatest statesman-warrior in Hittite history, he left on his death an empire that was stronger, though not richer, than Egypt. He conspired with...

• Tiglathpileser I d. c.1074 BC, king of ancient Assyria. An able administrator, he was especially renowned for his military ability and invaded Asia Minor, N Syria, Armenia, and Babylonia. He rebuilt temples and...

• Tiglathpileser III d. 728 BC, king of ancient Assyria. He seems to have usurped the throne in 745 BC He bore the alternative name of Pul, by which he was known in biblical history (2 Kings 15.19). He subdued the...

• Tigranes c.140 BC-55 BC, king of Armenia (c.96 BC-55 BC), called also Tigranes I and Tigranes the Great. By an alliance with his father-in-law, Mithradates VI of Pontus, he was able to extend his conquests across Asia Minor. He founded Tigranocerta (the modern Siirt, Turkey) as the capital of his large empire, but he and Mithradates were at war with...

• Tiridates fl. c.AD 63, king of Armenia. He was put on the throne by his brother Vologeses I, king of Parthia, and he was driven from it when the Romans under Corbulo won (AD 59) the Parthian campaign. Later...

• Tissaphernes d. 395 BC, Persian satrap of coastal Asia Minor (c.413-395 BC). He was encouraged by Alcibiades (412) to intervene in the Peloponnesian War in support of Sparta. Out of favor with Cyrus the Younger...

• Ur-Nammu fl. 2060 BC, king of the ancient city of Ur, sometimes called Zur-Nammu or Ur-Engur. He founded a new Sumerian dynasty, the third dynasty of Ur, that lasted a century. Ur-Nammu was the promulgator...

• Xerxes I (Xerxes the Great) , d. 465 BC, king of ancient Persia (486-465 BC). His name in Old Persian is Khshayarsha, in the Bible Ahasuerus. He was the son of Darius I and Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great. After bringing (484 BC.) Egypt once more under Persian rule, Xerxes prepared for an invasion of Greece (see Persian Wars ) by constructing a bridge of boats across the Hellespont and cutting a canal through the isthmus of Athos. Setting out from Sardis, he marched through Thrace and Macedonia and, despite the bravery...

• Xerxes II d. 424 BC, king of ancient Persia (424 BC), son of Artaxerxes I. After a reign of 45 days he was murdered by his half brother Sogdianus.

• Zenobia d. after 272, queen of Palmyra. She was of Arab stock and was the wife of Septimius Odenathus. He was murdered, probably through her contrivance, and she obtained rule of his lands in the name of her son. She expanded the territories further to rule E Asia Minor, Syria, N Mesopotamia, and...