ArtabanusArtabanos

A Persian prince; the brother of king Darius I and the only man to advise both Darius and his son, king Xerxes I, not to venture into Europe with the expectation of conquest.

When Xerxes was holding a war council to discuss the plans for the invasion of Greece (480 BCE), Artabanus gave a passionate appeal for caution and restraint; he proposed that if the king was determined to send an army to Greece, that he (Artabanus) and the king’s cousin, Mardonius, should lead the army and Xerxes should remain at home; Xerxes was furious; he said that if Artabanus were not his uncle, he would be punished for such empty words.

Xerxes envisioned a world where all nations, innocent and guilty, would be denied the ability to pose a threat to the Persian throne because he intended to make the entire world a part of his empire; he feared that Greece had the potential to threaten the mighty Persian Empire (Alexander the Great eventually made Xerxes’ fears a reality).

• Histories, book 7, chapters 10-11, 46-53)