# Artachaees

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{{Short description|5th-century BC Persian engineer}}

'''Artachaees''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀρταχαίης}}), son of [Artaeus](/source/Artaeus), was an [Achaemenid](/source/Achaemenid_dynasty) engineer of [ancient Persia](/source/ancient_Persia), who lived around the 5th century BCE.

He was reputed to be the tallest man in his country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Artachaees |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=artachaees-bio-1 |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> He was described as being "four fingers short of five [royal cubit](/source/royal_cubit)s".<ref name="corpus">{{cite book
 | last =Kuhrt
 | first =Amélie
 | authorlink =Amélie Kuhrt
 | title =The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period
 | publisher =[Taylor & Francis](/source/Taylor_%26_Francis)
 | date =2013
 | pages =
 | language =English
 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=q3z1Tgb-AG8C
 | isbn = 9781136017025
 | accessdate=2023-06-19}}</ref> It is not possible to know with any precision what modern length was meant here, but most scholars agree it was somewhere between seven and eight feet tall.<ref>{{cite book
 | last =Herodotus
 | authorlink =Herodotus
 | editor-last=Dewald
 | editor-first=Carolyn
 | translator-last=Waterfield
 | translator-first=Robin
 | title =Histories
 | publisher =[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press)
 | date =2008
 | pages =701
 | language =English
 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Q7y3Suc6bKkC
 | isbn = 9780199535668
 | accessdate=2023-06-19}}</ref>

Aside from his height, Artachaees was most noted for his architecting of the [Xerxes Canal](/source/Xerxes_Canal) across the peninsula at the base of [Mount Athos](/source/Mount_Athos), and his direct role in overseeing its construction.<ref name="corpus"/>

He died while [Xerxes I](/source/Xerxes_I) was with his army at Athos; and Xerxes, who was deeply grieved at his loss, gave him a lavish funeral, and commanded his army to raise a mound for Artachaees. This mound was said to have been visible as late as the 19th century.<ref>Classical Museum, No. I. p. 83, Lond. 1843.</ref>

In the time of the historian [Herodotus](/source/Herodotus), the [Acanthians](/source/Akanthos_(Greece)), in pursuance of an oracle, sacrificed to Artachaees as a hero.<ref>[Herodotus](/source/Herodotus), ''[Histories](/source/Histories_(Herodotus))'' 7.22, 117</ref>

Herodotus also mentions a couple of commanders who were the sons of Artachaees. These were [Artaÿntes](/source/Arta%C3%BFntes), who commanded a segment of the Persian navy, and Otaspes, who commanded a group of [Assyria](/source/Assyria)n soldiers in the army.<ref name="corpus"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DGRBM|author=WS|title= Artachaees |volume=1|page=369|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/acl3129.0001.001/384}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Artachaees}}

Category:Ancient Persian engineers
Category:Persian people of the Greco-Persian Wars
Category:5th-century BC Iranian people

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Artachaees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artachaees) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artachaees?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.