ARTABAZANES, autonomous ruler of Armenia who submitted to the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 220 B.C., when the latter invaded his country (Polybius 5.55. 2). This satrap was presumably of Iranian lineage. His name is attested in the Achaemenid period as Artobazanes, borne by one of Darius’ four sons by the daughter of Gobryas prior to his accession (Herodotus 7.2). The Iranian form of the name is debated. If the Greek form is a defective representation of *Artabarzanes (thus I. Gershevitch in Studia Classica et Orientalia Antonino Pagliaro Oblata II, Rome, 1969, p. 230), the name is identical with Artibarzanes (a eunuch of Darius II; Photius’ summary of Ctesias’ Persica, Epit. 49; “Artibazanes” is a ms. variant; see F. W. König, Die Persika des Ktesias von Knidos, Graz, 1972, p. 19). This name is *Ṛtabṛzā/ăna, a patronymic of *Ṛta-bṛza, “exalting Truth” (Gershevitch, loc. cit.); it is also attested in Elamite (M. Mayrhofer, Onomastica Persepolitana, Vienna, 1973, no. 8.596). “Artabazanes” is also regarded as not being a variant but a proper patronymic to the name *Ṛta-vazdah (Av. Ašavazdah, Gr. Artabazos; ibid., nos. 8.596 and 8.617).

(C. J. Brunner)