20 Facts About Tissaphernes

Tissaphernes was a Persian commander and statesman, Satrap of Lydia and Ionia.

Tissaphernes's life is mostly known from the works of Thucydides and Xenophon.

Tissaphernes belonged to an important Persian family: he was the grandson of Hydarnes, an eminent Persian general, who was the commander of the Immortals during the time of king Xerxes' invasion of Greece.

In 414 BC, Tissaphernes was assigned by Darius II to suppress the rebellion of Pissuthnes, the Persian satrap of Lydia and Ionia, and to take over his office.

Tissaphernes bribed Pissuthnes' Greek mercenaries to desert him and promised that his life would be spared if he surrendered, a promise which Darius did not keep.

When Darius II ordered Tissaphernes to proceed to suppress the continued rebellion of Pissuthnes' son Amorges, and ordered him to collect the outstanding tribute from the Greek cities of Asia Minor, many of which were under Athenian protection, Tissaphernes entered into an alliance with Sparta against Athens, which in 412 BC led to the Persian conquest of the greater part of Ionia.

However, Tissaphernes was unwilling to take action and tried to achieve his aim through astute and often perfidious negotiations.

When, therefore, in 408 BC the king decided to actively support Sparta, Tissaphernes was removed as a general and his responsibilities were limited to the satrapy of Caria, with Lydia and the conduct of the war being entrusted to Cyrus the Younger.

Tissaphernes, who found out about Cyrus the Younger's plan to assassinate his brother, informed the king about the conspiracy, who then had Cyrus imprisoned.

However, Tissaphernes managed to warn Artaxerxes II and quickly gathered together an army.

Tissaphernes therefore wanted Clearchus of Sparta, the commander of the Greeks, to take the centre against Artaxerxes.

Tissaphernes was left with a problem: he faced a large army of heavy troops that he could not defeat by frontal assault.

Tissaphernes supplied them with food and, after a long wait, led them northwards for home, meanwhile detaching the Persian general Ariaeus and his light troops from the Greeks.

The senior Greek officers foolishly accepted an invitation from Tissaphernes to attend a feast.

Agesilaus thanked Tissaphernes for having put the gods on the side of the Greeks by committing perjury, and let it be known that he now planned to lead his troops against Caria.

When Tissaphernes gathered his troops to meet this supposed Carian invasion, Agesilaus instead successfully attacked the Persian province of Hellespontine Phrygia.

Tissaphernes, believing that if Agesilaus really intended to attack Sardis he would not have said so, assumed that this time Agesilaus would finally attack Caria, so Tissaphernes concentrated his troops in that area, but Agesilaus successfully attacked Sardis just as he said he would.

At last, the fall of Tissaphernes came about when the Persian king yielded to the representations of Pharnabazus II, strongly supported by the chiliarch Tithraustes and by the queen-mother Parysatis, who hated Tissaphernes as the principal cause of the death of her favourite son Cyrus.

Tithraustes was sent to assassinate Tissaphernes, who was lured to Ariaeus' residence in Colossae and slain in 395 BC.

Tissaphernes has been described, on the one hand, as impetuous and forthright, on the other, as a liar and treacherous deceiver.