Megabazus (Old Persian: Bagavazdā or Bagabāzu, ), son of Megabates, was a highly regarded Persian general under Darius, to whom he was a first-degree cousin. Most of the information about Megabazus comes from The Histories by Herodotus.
Scythian campaign (513 BC)
Megabazus led the army of the Persian King
Darius I in 513 BC during his European Scythian campaign. After this had to be discontinued without result, Megabazos was left as commander-in-chief of an 80,000-man army in Europe, with the mission of subjugating the Greek cities on the
Hellespont. The Persian troops first subjugated gold-rich
Thrace after capturing Perinthos and the coastal Greek cities, and then defeated the powerful
Paeonians, many of whom he deported to
Phrygia.
Subjugation of Macedon
Finally, Megabazus sent envoys to
Amyntas I, king of Macedon, demanding acceptance of Persian domination, which the king accepted.
Megabazus received the present of "Earth and Water" from Amyntas, which symbolised submission to the Achaemenid Emperor.
Amyntas then acted as
hyparch to
Darius I.
Disagreements arose when the members of the Persian delegation insulting the Macedonians by fraternising with their wives. The Macedonian prince Alexander I reacted to this by murdering several Persian diplomats and their followers. The conflict was later settled with the marriage of one of Megabazus' sons, Bubares, to the Macedonian princess Gygaia, a daughter of Amyntas.
After his return to Asia Minor, Megabazus received the governorship of the province (satrapy) of Hellespontine Phrygia and was based in its capital Daskyleion.
Rivalry with Histiaeus
Megabazus was suspicious of
Histiaeus, tyrant of
Miletus, and advised Darius to bring him to the Persian capital of
Susa to keep a closer eye on him. His suspicions turned out to be well founded as Histiaeus provoked a revolt in the town of which he was formally in charge and later sided with the Greeks against Persia. The successor to Megabazus' command was Otanes (son of Sisamnes).
Family
According to Herodotus (Herodotus 6.33)
Oebares II was a son of Megabazus, and became
satrap of
Daskyleion (Hellespontine Phrygia) in 493 BC.
Megabates was another son of Megabazus. He was a commander of the Achaemenid fleet that sailed against Naxos in 500/499 BC. He also was Satrap of Daskyleion in the early 470s.[Thucydides, 1.129; Herodotus, 5.32-35, 6.32]
Sons
See also
