Tiribazos?
- sulla80
- Jun 28
- 5 min read
Hyparch (sub-satrap) of western Armenia
Born around 440 BC, Tiribazos was a prominent Persian noble who served the Achaemenid Empire in the 5th–4th centuries BC. He first enters the historical record as Achaemenid hyparch (sub-satrap) of western Armenia during Cyrus the Younger’s revolt against his brother Artaxerxes. Xenophon depicts him as a wily frontier commander who met the retreating Ten Thousand (Greek mercenaries fighting for Cyrus) in 401 BC, negotiated a truce, then tried to ambush them in a mountain pass - an attempt foiled by Greek speed and discipline. This vignette already shows the two traits that sources stress repeatedly: his diplomacy and his appetite for calculated risk.
Xenophon notes that Tiribazos was highly esteemed by the Achaemenid King Artaxerxes II.
This region was called Western Armenia. Its lieutenant-governor was Tiribazus, who had proved himself a friend to the King and, so often as he was present, was the only man permitted to help the King mount his horse. -Xenophon, Anabasis 4.4.4Satrap of Lydia
The king's favor led to his appointment as satrap (governor) of Lydia (the western Anatolian satrapy based at Sardis) c. 393-392 BCE. When the veteran satrap Tissaphernes was executed, Artaxerxes II appointed Tiribazos as karanos (“supreme commander”) in Asia Minor with the Sardis satrapy of Lydia. Xenophon lists him first among the king’s most trusted men at court during these years. Over his career he would fall in and out of favor with the court.
The Corinthian War
It didn't take him long to fall our of favor : circa 392 BCE, amid the Corinthian War, he provided funds to Sparta against Athens which caused King Artaxerxes II briefly remove Tiribazos and temporarily replaced him with a more anti-Spartan governor, Struthas.
The Peace of Antalcidas
He was back in favor by 387 BCE. Tiribazos played a key role in brokering the Peace of Antalcidas (the King’s Peace) between Persia and the Greek states. Artaxerxes II made the Greeks a simple offer: accept peace or prepare for war.
Tiribazus showed them the King's seal and then read the writing. It ran as follows:
“King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia should belong to him, as well as Clazomenae and Cyprus among the islands, and that the other Greek cities, both small and great, should be left independent, except Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros; and these should belong, as of old, to the Athenians. But whichever of the two parties does not accept this peace, upon them I will make war, in company with those who desire this arrangement, both by land and by sea, with ships and with money.”Rebellious Evagoras
Artaxerxes next paired Tiribazos (fleet) with Orontes (army) to subdue King Evagoras of Salamis. Tiribazos fell into trouble again after he and Orontes defeated the the rebellious king of Cyprus, Evagoras. While Tirbazos was negotiating with Evagoras, Orontes, envious of Tiribazos' high position, secretly sent letters to Artaxerxes accusing Tiribazos of conspiring against the king. For this Tirbazos was arrested. He overcame this setback as well, vindicated in court, where Orontes was disgraced.
Diodorus Siculus narrates the Cyprus war, Tiribazos’s arrest, and his dramatic trial and acquittal. He includes the story of Tiribazos saving the King from lions, highlighting his bravery, the goodwill it earned him in the trial and the result for Orontes:
Orontes, however, he (Artaxerxes) condemned as one who had fabricated a false accusation, expelled him from his list of friends, and subjected him to the utmost marks of degradation.
-Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 11.2Cadusian Retreat
The “Cadusian disaster” c. 365 BCE was Artaxerxes II’s ill-supplied winter invasion of the Caspian highlands, where his grand army nearly perished from hunger until Tiribazos salvaged it by bribing rival Cadusian chiefs and securing a negotiated retreat.
An AR Stater
Cilicia, Mallos, Tiribazos?, satrap of Lydia, 390-387 BC, Stater (Silver, 22 mm, 9.77 g, 7 h).
Obv: Female head to right, with hair bound with ampyx and sphendone, wearing pendant earring and pearl necklace.
Rev: [MAΛΛ-Ω]-Τ-H-[Σ] Male head (Tiribazos?) to right, wearing kyrbasia.
Ref: SNG Levante 150. SNG Paris 391.
Notes: Attractively toned. Test cut on obverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.
From the Collection of Prof. James M. Collier, acquired from Baldwins in London in 2000. Sold to benefit the Collier Prize in Ancient Numismatics offered by the American Numismatic Society.
Tiribazos or Other Satrap?
Olivier Casabonne groups the Aphrodite–bashlyk staters of this type, Type 2d (Mallos), with the wider “Type 2” series of Soloi, Tarsus and Mallos. On the basis of
Diodorus’ narrative of the Persian build-up for the Cypriot war
the shared civic legends, and
early taureau + YZ counter-marks that never appear after c. 385 B.C.E.
He dates the whole series to c. 390-387/386 B.C., just before Tiribazos received sole command and struck his named Baʿal/Ahura-Mazda coins (Type 1).
Casabonne argues the coins were ordered by the satraps Tiribazos and Orontes - acting jointly as karanoi - and struck in the Cilician cities “to pay for provisions and other expenses of the army” assembling for the campaign against Evagoras of Salamis. Although civic in outward form (legends MA / MAA / MAAAOTHX for Mallos), they functioned as wartime financing instruments.
Shannahan’s 2016 die-study examined every coin that actually carries Tiribazos’s name (in Aramaic) and every hoard find that can be securely dated. No such hard evidence exists for Type 2d; therefore he treats it separately. Also, by tightening slightly the Baal series to 387/6-381 BC (instead of Casabonne’s broad 386-380), anything that cannot be die-linked to that corpus is now more plausibly pre-387 than post-381. This suggests that minting of the Mallos coins was earlier and began during initial preparations for the war with Evagoras, King of Cyprus.
This leaves open the attribution - auction catalogs leave the Aphrodite/bashlyk coins under Tiribazos for convenience, but most recent academic treatments file them as “Mallos, c. 390-387 BC, issuer uncertain. No new inscription or die evidence has settled the question.
A Failed Plot
Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch both tell a similar story of Tiribazos' end: After the Cypriot war Tiribazos regained full favour at court, but Artaxerxes II withdrew the promised marriage of his daughter Amestris, and later Tiribazos joined the crown-prince Darius in a plot to kill the King and seize the throne. The conspiracy was betrayed by a eunuch. Royal guards were sent to arrest Tiribazos. He defended himself bravely, killing several of the guards, and was at last transfixed by a spear and died.
With that we have the context for this coin and we end with a mystery - was this a coin of Tiribasos & Orontes jointly preparing for the war with Evagoras? or some other satrap?
References:
Casabonne, Olivier. “Conquête perse et phénomène monétaire : l’exemple cilicien.” In Mécanismes et innovations monétaires dans l’Anatolie achéménide : Numismatique et histoire. Actes de la Table Ronde d’Istanbul, 22–23 mai 1997, edited by Olivier Casabonne, 21-91. Varia Anatolica 12. Istanbul: Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 2000.
John Shannahan, “The Baal/Figure in the Winged Disc Staters of Tiribazus”, Numismatic Chronicle 178 (2018): 15–32 – first full die-study; revises dating and deity identification.
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