Arsites

Arsites (Greek Ἀρσíτης; † 334 BC) was a Persian governor ( satrap ) in the 4th century BC.

Arsites was under the rule of the Achaemenids, the governor of Hellespontine Phrygia ( Kleinphrygien ) and Paphlagonia. In the year 340 BC, he sent a mercenary contingent under the command of the Athenian Apollodorus in defense of the besieged by Philip II Perinthus. The application was successful, making a further advance of the Macedonian king was on Asian soil for the time being prevented. In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander the Great entered but after crossing the Hellespont the ground in Asia manor of Aristes. This formed with its small Asian counterparts a Satrapenkoalition to ward off the attacker. In the conference of Zeleia however, he was the leading opponent of the plan submitted by the strategists Memnon on the application of scorched earth. In the battle of the Granicus, he commanded his squad on the right Persian wing. In the midst of the struggle Arsites fled from the battlefield, but he committed suicide only briefly in the face of having to be justified by his defeat.

His province was the first on Asian soil, which fell to the conqueror Alexander 's hands. This proclaimed there the Macedonian General Kalas to his satraps.

Arsites had a son named Mithropastes, who fled to an island in the Persian Gulf after the death of his father. There he was incorporated in the year BC 325/324 from the fleet commander Nearchus, whom he accompanied on the rest of the way his fleet company.