Atropates

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Atropates

Atropates (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
At?op?t??, from Old Persian Aturpat "protected by fire"; c. 370 BC-after 321 BC) was a Persian

Persian people

Persian identity, at least in terms of language, is traced to the ancient Indo-Iranians , who arrived in parts of Greater Iran circa 2000-1500 BCE....
nobleman who served Darius III, then Alexander III of Macedon, and eventually founded an independent kingdom and dynasty that was named after him. Diodorus (18.4) refers to him as 'Atrapes', while Quintus Curtius (8.3.17) erroneously names him 'Arsaces'.

rds the end of the Achaemenid Empire

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire was amongst the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Ancient Iranian peoples Median Empire....
, Atropates was governor (satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
) of the Achaemenid province of Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
.

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Atropates (Greek

Greek language

Persian people

Biography

Towards the end of the Achaemenid Empire

Achaemenid Empire

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
. In the decisive Battle of Gaugamela

Battle of Gaugamela

The Battle of Gaugamela took place in 331 BC between Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Darius III of Persia of Achaemenid Empire Persian Empire....
(October 331 BCE) between Darius and Alexander, Atropates commanded the Achaemenid troops of Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, Caucasian Albania

Albania (satrapy)

Albania, or Ardhan in Parthian language or Arran in Middle Persian as it was known in Persian language, was a Caucasian satrapy of the Sassanid Empire....
and Sacasene (part of present-day Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
).

Following his defeat in that battle, Darius fled to the Median capital of Ecbatana

Ecbatana

Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus ....
, where Atropates gave him hospitality. Darius attempted to raise a new army but was forced to flee Ecbatana in June 330 BCE. After Darius' death a month later at the hands of Bessus

Bessus

File:The punishment of Bessus by Andre Castaigne .jpgBessus was a Persian Empire nobleman and satrap of Bactria, and later contender king of Persia....
, Atropates surrendered to Alexander. Alexander initially chose Oxydates as satrap of Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, but in 328-327 BCE after Alexander lost trust in Oxydates' loyalty, Atropates was reinstated to his old position. In 325-324, Atropates delivered Baryaxes (a sought-after rebel of the region) to Alexander while the latter was at Pasargadae

Pasargadae

'Pasargadae' was a city in ancient Iran, and is today an archaeological site and one of Iran's five UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to the Elamite cuneiform of the Persepolis fortification tablets the name was rendered as Batrakata?, and the name in current usage derives from a Greek Language transliteration of an Old Persian P?th...
. Alexander's esteem for the governor rose "so high" that soon afterwards Atropates' daughter was married to Alexander's confidant and cavalry commander Perdiccas

Perdiccas

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian Empire and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River.The modern town of Shush, Iran is located at the site of ancient Susa....
in February 324 BCE.

Later that year, Alexander visited Atropates in Ecbatana

Ecbatana

Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus ....
with his good friend and second-in-command Hephaestion

Hephaestion

Hephaestion , son of Amyntor, was a Ancient Macedonians nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "... by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets." This friendship lasted their whole lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to t...
, who fell ill and died in October 324 BCE. At this time, "[i]t was related by some authors, that Atropates on one occasion presented Alexander with a hundred women, said to be Amazons; but Arrian

Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
([Anabasis] vii. 13) disbelieved the story."

Alexander himself died eight months later on June 10, 323 BCE, and Atropates' new son-in-law Perdiccas

Perdiccas

Philip III of Macedon

Philip III Arrhidaeus , king of Macedon from June 10, 323 BC until his death, was a son of King Philip II of Macedon by Philinna of Larissa, allegedly a Thessaly dancer, and a half-brother of Alexander the Great....
. Following the "Partition of Babylon

Partition of Babylon

The Partition of Babylon designates the attribution of the territories of Alexander the Great between his generals after his death in 323 BCE....
" in 323 BCE, Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
was divided into two parts: the greater portion in the south-east was to be governed by Peithon

Peithon

Peithon or Pithon was the son of Crateuas, a nobleman from Eordaia in western Macedonia. One of the bodyguards of Alexander the Great, later satrap of Medes and one of the diadochi....
, a general of Perdiccas

Perdiccas

Perdiccas was one of Alexander the Great's generals. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he became regent of all Alexander's empire.Arrian tells us he was son of Orontes, a descendant of the independent princes of the province of Orestis ....
, while a smaller portion in the north west (principally around the Araxes River basin was given to Atropates. At some point thereafter, Atropates refused to convey allegiance to the diadochi

Diadochi

The Diadochi were the rival successors of Alexander the Great, and their Wars of the Diadochi followed Alexander's death. This was the beginning of the Hellenistic period of Greek history, the time when many people who were not Greek themselves adopted Greek philosophy and styles, Greek urban life, and aspects of the Greek religion....
and made his part of Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
an independent kingdom, while his son-in-law Perdiccas

Perdiccas

Peithon

Legacy

The dynasty Atropates founded would rule the kingdom for several centuries, at first either independendantly or as vassals of the Seleucids, then as vassals of the Arsacids, into whose house they "are said" to have married.

The region that encompassed Atropates' kingdom come to be known to the Greeks as "Media Atropatene

Atropatene

Atropatene or Media Atropatene was an ancient kingdom established in the 4th century BC in modern Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan....
" after Atropates, and eventually simply "Atropatene

Atropatene

Atropatene or Media Atropatene was an ancient kingdom established in the 4th century BC in modern Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan....
". The Arsacids called it 'Aturpatakan' in Parthian

Parthian language

The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlavanik, is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Parthia, a region of northeastern Greater Iran, to include a significant portion of Greater Khorasan....
, as did also the Sassanids who eventually succeeded them. Eventually Middle Iranian

Middle Iranian languages

Middle Iranian may refer to any of a group of the Indo-European language Iranian languages spoken between the 4th century BC and the 9th century AD:...
'Aturpatakan' became 'Azerbaijan', whence the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Iranian province of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (Iran)

Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Iranian Azarbaijan, Persian Azerbaijan, , is a region in northwestern Iran....
get their name.