Sataspes

Sataspes, son of Teaspes, was a Persian nobleman and voyage Santander in the 5th century BC. His mother was a sister of the Great King Darius I, which he was a first cousin of the Great King Xerxes I..

Around the year 483/482 BC Sataspes raped a daughter of high-ranking nobles Zopyrus, after which he was convicted of Xerxes I. to death by impalement. However, his mother was able to obtain a parole for her son at her royal nephew. From Xerxes I. Sataspes therefore received the order, with a fleet of the country Libya (Africa) from west to east to circle, in the direction opposite to that Seeexpedition that had once initiated Pharaoh Necho II. Well- equipped with Phoenician ships, Sataspes began its journey in Egypt, drove along the North African coast, crossed the Pillars of Hercules to the Cape Soloeis (probably Cape Cantin ) turning to the south. During the journey, the expedition sighted in unknown countries midgets, took the branches of palm trees as clothing. But to a contact with them, it was not because the locals always fled to the hilly hinterland, once the expedition went ashore.

Discouraged well after the month-long trip along the coast of the Sahara, is Sataspes decided to turn back and sailed back to Egypt. Compared to the great king he explained this to occur shoals that would have made another they pass over the continent impossible. Xerxes did not believe him and let Sataspes now but piles for his failure.

After Sataspes ' death took possession of one of his eunuchs, a portion of its assets and sat down with it to Samos from. There, the eunuch was robbed by a native, wants to have the historian Herodotus learned from the history of Sataspes expedition and so in his histories ( 4.43) could accommodate. Since it is the only source to their veracity is difficult to verify.