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Achaemenes

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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(HAKHAMANI), the eponymous ancestor of the royal house of Persia, the Achaemenidae, "a clan Opi rprt of the Pasargadae" (Herod. i. 125), the leading Persian tribe. According to Darius in the Behistun inscription and Herod. iii. 75, vii. 11, he was the father of TeIspes, the great-grandfather of Cyrus. Cyrus himself, in his proclamation to the Babylonians after the conquest of Babylon, does not mention his name. Whether he really was a historical personage, or merely the mythical ancestor of the family, cannot be decided. According to Aelian (Hist. anim. xii. 21), he was bred by an eagle. We learn from Cyrus's proclamation that TeIspes and his successors had become kings of Anshan, i.e. a part of Elam (Susiana), where they ruled as vassals of the Median kings, until Cyrus the Great in 550 B.C. founded the Persian empire. After the death of Cambyses, the younger line of the Achaemenidae came to the throne with Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who was, like Cyrus, the great-grandson of TeIspes. Cyrus, Darius and all the later kings of Persia call themselves Achaemenides (Hakhamanishiya). With Darius III. Codomannus the dynasty became extinct and the Persian empire came to an end (330). The adjective Achaemendus is used by the Latin poets as the equivalent of "Persian" (Horace, Odes, ii. 12, 21). See Persia.

The name Achaemenes is borne by a son of Darius I., brother of Xerxes. After the first rebellion of Egypt, he became satrap of Egypt (484 B.C.); he commanded the Persian fleet at Salamis,. and was (460 B.C.) defeated and slain by Inarus, the leader of the second rebellion of Egypt.