ArtabazusAratbazos

A Persian commander in the army of king Xerxes.

Artabazus was the son of Pharnakes (Pharnaces) and commander of the Parthians and Khorasmians (Chorasmians) when Xerxes mounted his invasion of Greece in 480 BCE.

After the Persians successfully crossed into Europe and marched south towards the city of Athens, the only serious military obstacle they faced was at the narrow pass known as Thermopylae; the overwhelming forces of the Persian army finally overcame the Spartans at Thermopylae and they marched unopposed into Attika (Attica) and burned Athens.

The Persian army seemed invincible but when Xerxes encountered the Greek navy he was dealt a crippling defeat near the island of Salamis; without his navy to provide supplies for his massive army, Xerxes made plans to return to Asia Minor; Artabazus escorted the Great King back to Persian territory and then marched back into Greece with the intention of combining his army with that of the senior commander, Mardonius.

Before he could move farther south to join Mardonius, the three finger-shaped peninsulas called the Khalkidike (Chalcidice) demanded Artabazus’ attention; several of the cities of the Khalkidike had renounced their alliance with the Persians after they had learned of the Persian defeat and withdrawal.

Artabazus laid siege to the city of Potidaea and was assisted by the betrayal of a Greek named Timoxenus from the city of Skione (Scione); Artabazus and Timoxenus exchanged secret messages by tying a small strip of paper to the shaft of an arrow and shooting the arrow to a prescribed place for the other to retrieve; one of Artabazus’ arrows missed the mark and struck a man in the shoulder; the arrow was examined and Timoxenus’ betrayal was discovered; the people of Potidaea did not confront Timoxenus because they did not want to bring eternal shame to innocent people of his city for his crime.

After three months of siege, the Persians offended the god Poseidon (lord of the Sea) by acting in a sacrilegious manner towards the god’s temple and statue on the outskirts of Potidaea; as a result of the sacrilege, an unusually large ebb-tide flooded the plain; Artabazus started to move his army to higher ground but before they could reach safety, a flood tide swept over the army drowning many for their offense of Poseidon.

Artabazus took the remainder of his army and moved south to Thessaly where Mardonius had camped; the entire Persian force then moved to the city of Plataea and prepared to do battle with the allied Greeks who still resisted Persian domination.

As the two armies faced each other across the Asopos (Asopus) river, Artabazus advised Mardonius to withdraw to the safety of the walled city of Thebes and not fight the Greeks on the open plain; Artabazus suggested that they use their accumulated wealth to simply buy off the Greek cities which still remained hostile and not risk the entire army in a pitched battle.

Mardonius was not agreeable to this plan because he was sure that he could win a military victory over the Greeks despite the fact that their oracular sacrifices had, for ten consecutive days, been unfavorable.

The battle at Plataea was joined and, at dawn on the second day of battle, Mardonius saw that the Spartans had pulled back from their front line positions and he announced that his enemy, the Spartans, and his second in command, Artabazus, were both cowards.

When Mardonius charged into the Greek lines, Artabazus took the troops under his command and marched away from the fighting; Artabazus fled towards Byzantium and hoped to pass over into Asia before news of Mardonius’ death and the Persian defeat reached the northern Greek cities.

Leaving many of his men to die from weariness and hunger, Artabazus crossed the Hellespont by boat and thus survived the Persian invasion of Greece.

• Histories, book 7, chapter 66; book 8, chapters 126-129; book 9, chapters 41-2, 58, 66 and 89