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Document Details : Title: On Metonomasia in the Achaemenid Dynasty Author(s): RUNG, Eduard Journal: Iranica Antiqua Volume: 58 Date: 2023 Pages: 149-171 DOI: 10.2143/IA.58.0.3292996 Abstract : The article examines the subject of metonomasia (renaming) in the Achaemenid dynasty as reflected in Greek and Oriental sources. It shows that the practice of metonomasia was not originally typical of the Achaemenids, but came into being in a specific political situation when Ochus, the illegitimate son of the king Artaxerxes I Macrochir rose to power in 424 BC and having no right to the throne, which he had ascended as a result of the revolt, he assumed the name Darius after his famous predecessor in order to legitimize his rule. That king was also the first of the Achaemenids whose birth-name, Ochus, the Greeks began to use as a nickname. In the years to follow, metonomasia became an integral part of the Achaemenid dynasty’s history: Artaxerxes II Mnemon, Artaxerxes III Ochus, Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius III Codomannus and Artaxerxes V Bessus officially were known after their throne names. In the case of Artaxerxes III and Artaxerxes IV the Greeks used their birth-names as nicknames, sometimes, even instead of their throne names (occasionally in the case of Artaxerxes III and permanently in the case of Artaxerxes IV). And although the Greeks knew of the assumption of the throne name Artaxerxes by Bessus, they never referred to him using it as after Darius III’s death in 330 BC nobody recognized Bessus’ royal title. |
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