Mithrapata

Silver stater of Mithrapata, ca. 390–370 BC

Mithrapata was dynast of Lycia in the early 4th century BC, at a time when this part of Anatolia was subject to the Persian, or Achaemenid, Empire.

Present-day knowledge of Lycia in the period of classical antiquity comes mostly from archaeology, in which this region is unusually rich. Believed to have been based at Antiphellus, Mithrapata is known to have competed for power with another man named Arttumpara.[1]

The name of Mithrapata, which is of Persian origin, is known from Lycian coins and also from inscriptions.[2] During the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., the Lycian nobility was using Persian names,[3] so Mithrapata may have been one of them. However, it has also been suggested that he may have been a Persian sent to rule Lycia by Artaxerxes II.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ D. T. Potts, A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (2012), p. 912: "...c. 380–370 BC, two western Lycian dynasts named Arttumpara and Mithrapata claimed power simultaneously."
  2. ↑ Lisbeth S. Fried, The Priest and the Great King: Temple-palace Relations in the Persian Empire (Eisenbrauns, 2004), p. 150
  3. ↑ Muhammad A. Dandamaev, Vladimir G. Lukonin, The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran (2004), p. 300
  4. ↑ Trevor Bryce, Jan Zahle, The Lycians: The Lycians in literary and epigraphic sources (1986), p. 162
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