the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Bessus
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or satrap of Bactria and Sogdiana under Darius III. In the battle of Gaugamela (1st of October 331) he commanded the troops of his satrapy. When. Alexander pursued the Persian king on his flight to the East (summer 330), Bessus with some of the other conspirators deposed Darius and shortly afterwards killed him. He then tried to organize a national resistance against the Macedonian conqueror in the eastern provinces, proclaimed himself king and adopted the name Artaxerxes. But he was taken prisoner by treachery in the summer of 329. Alexander sent him to Ecbatana, where he was condemned to death. Before his execution his nose and ears were cut off, according to the Persian custom; we learn from the Behistun inscription that Darius I. punished the usurpers in the same way.
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Bessus'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/b/bessus.html. 1910.
