Oxyathres of Persia

Oxyathres (Greek Oξυαθρης; Vaxšuvarda in Old Persian ) came from a side branch of the dynasty of the Achaemenids and was a son of Arsanes and Sisygambis as well as a younger brother of the Persian king Darius III. († 330 BC).

The government of Darius III. was marked by defensive struggle against Macedon king Alexander the Great. As it is in the battle of Issus (333 BC) with his horsemen personally to the vicinity of the chariot of Darius III. fought his, protected the force as a courageous fighter Oxyathres his brother along with other noble Persians and is probably represented in this act to the famous Alexander mosaic. Despite his efforts, the battle was because of the flight of Darius III. lost to the Persians.

As a result Oxyathres accompanied his royal brother at his retreat in the East. After Darius III. had been murdered on the run from the Macedonians by his own people, Oxyathres changed sides and Alexander the Great, who took him as Hetairos and appointed commander of his Persian bodyguard. 329 BC was the principal architect of the conspiracy against Darius III. applicable Bessus into the hands of the Macedonians. Alexander the Great had mutilate it and then deliver it to Oxyathres. This ordered to execute Bessus in Ecbatana in an extremely cruel manner. According to the historian Quintus Curtius Rufus Alexander Bessus was crucified, dismembered after Alexander's biographer Plutarch, however.

Amastris, the daughter of Oxyathres, married in mass wedding at Susa Alexander's comrades Craterus (324 BC) and after her divorce, the tyrant Dionysius of Heraclea.