Artaxerxes I of Persia

Prospective tomb of Artaxerxes I of Persia in Naqsh-e Rustam

Artaxerxes I (Latin; Greek Ἀρταξέρξης; Persian اردشیر یکم (Ardeshir) corruption of Old Persian 𐎠𐎼𐎭𐎧𐎨𐏁𐎨^[1] Artaxšacā, "whose reign is through arta (truth)"; the name has nothing to do with Xerxes)^[2] was king of the Persian Empire from 465 BC to 424 BC. He was the son of Xerxes I of Persia and Amestris, daughter of Otanes.

He is also surnamed μακρόχειρ "Macrocheir (Latin = Longimanus)", allegedly because his right hand was longer than his left. ^[3] The Russian Rurikid family Dolgoruki claimed descent from him via the Armenian house of Pahlavuni.^{[citation needed]}

After Persia had been defeated at Eurymedon, military action between Greece and Persia was at a standstill. When Artaxerxes I took power, he began a new tradition of weakening the Athenians by funding their enemies in Greece. This indirectly caused the Athenians to move the treasury of the Delian League from the island of Delos to the Athenian acropolis. This funding practice inevitably prompted renewed fighting in 450 BC, where the Greeks attacked at the Battle of Cyprus. After Cimon's failure to attain much in this expedition, the Peace of Callias was agreed between Athens, Argos and Persia in 449 BC.

Artaxerxes I offered asylum to Themistocles, who was the winner of the Battle of Salamis, after Themistocles was ostracized from Athens.

Portrayal in the Book of Ezra and Nehemiah

Artaxerxes (Hebrew: אַרְתַּחְשַׁסְתְּא‎, pronounced [artaxʃasta]) commissioned Ezra, a Jewish priest-scribe, by means of a letter of decree, to take charge of the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the Jewish nation. A copy of this decree may be found in Ezra 7:13-28.

Ezra thereby left Babylon in the first month of the seventh year (~ 457 BC) of Artaxerxes' reign, at the head of a company of Jews that included priests and Levites. They arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month of the seventh year (Hebrew Calendar).

The rebuilding of the Jewish community in Jerusalem had begun under Cyrus the Great, who had permitted Jews held captive in Babylon, to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of Solomon. A number of Jews had consequently returned back to Jerusalem in 537 B.C.

In Artaxerxes' 20th year, Nehemiah was his cupbearer. They apparently had a friendship as the king noted Nehemiah's sadness. After inquiring after it, Nehemiah shared of the plight of his Jewish people and the ruins of Jerusalem. The king sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem with letters of safe passage to the governors in Trans-Euphrates, and to Asaph, keeper of the royal forests, to make beams for the citadel by the temple, for the city walls, and for his own home.^[4]

Interpretations of Artaxerxes actions

Roger Williams, a seventeenth-century Christian minister and founder of Rhode Island, interpreted several passages in the Old and New Testament to support limiting government interference in religious matters. Williams published The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, describing his analysis of why a civil government should be separate from religion according to the Bible. Williams believed that Israel was a unique covenant kingdom and not an appropriate model for New Testament Christians who believed that the Old Testament covenant had been fulfilled. Therefore, the more informative Old Testament examples of civil government were "good" non-covenant kings such as Artaxerxes, who tolerated the Jews even though he was a pagan and did not insist that they follow his "state" religion.^[5]

Offspring

By queen Damaspia

• Xerxes II

By Alogyne of Babylon

• Sogdianus

By Cosmartidene of Babylon

• Darius II
• Arsites

By Andia of Babylon

• Bogapaeus
• Parysatis, wife of Darius II Ochus

By another(?) unknown wife

• An unnamed daughter, wife of Hieramenes, mother of Autoboesaces and Mitraeus^[6]

By various wives eleven other children

References

• Encyclopedia Iranica

See also

• Artoxares