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Artachaees

Persian noble, overseer of the Athos canal, died at Acanthus in 480 BCE

In the game: Level 9: The Canal

Artachaees, son of Artaeus, was a Persian noble who shared command of the digging of Xerxes' canal through the Athos isthmus. Herodotus says he died of illness at Acanthus as Xerxes' army marched west in 480, and that the whole army raised a burial mound over him. Almost everything known about him comes from Herodotus.

In the game: The game's chronicle names Artachaees as overseer of the Athos canal, buried at Acanthus under a mound raised by the army. Herodotus adds that he died of illness and that Acanthus later honoured him as a hero.

Overseer of the canal

Ancient account

Herodotus says two Persians directed the work at Athos: Bubares son of Megabazus and Artachaees son of Artaeus. He describes the ground divided among the contingents of different peoples, with men digging under the lash and passing the earth up in relays. In his telling the preparations at Athos took about three years, before Xerxes' crossing into Europe in 480.

Herodotus 7.22-23

The canal in the ground

In the record

A British and Greek survey of the isthmus between 1991 and 2001 traced a buried channel across it, about 2 kilometres long. This confirmed that a canal was really dug where Herodotus placed it. The survey cannot show who directed the work, so Artachaees' role still rests on Herodotus alone.

B. S. J. Isserlin et al., The Canal of Xerxes: Summary of Investigations 1991-2001, 2003

Death at Acanthus

Ancient account

Herodotus says that while Xerxes was at Acanthus, Artachaees fell ill and died. He calls him a member of the Achaemenid family, held in high honour by the King. Xerxes grieved for him and gave him a splendid funeral, and the whole army heaped up a mound over his grave.

Herodotus 7.117

The tallest of the Persians

Disputed

Herodotus says Artachaees was the tallest man among the Persians, four fingers short of five royal cubits, and had the loudest voice of anyone. Taken literally, this would make him well over 2 metres tall, and historians treat the figure as exaggerated or as local storytelling. No Persian document known today names him, so the Greek account cannot be checked.

Herodotus 7.117

A hero of Acanthus

Ancient account

Herodotus adds that the people of Acanthus, following an oracle, sacrificed to Artachaees as a hero. He says they still did so in his own day, calling on him by name. The story probably reached Herodotus through local Greek tradition, and it shows how a Persian grave could become part of a Greek town's worship.

Herodotus 7.117