ARTABANUS (ahr"ta-ba'nus), the name of a number of Persian princes, soldiers and administrators. The most important are the following:— I. Brother of Darius I., and, according to Herodotus, the trusted adviser of his nephew Xerxes. Herodotus makes him a principal figure in his dialogues; he warns Darius not to attack the Scythians (iv. 83; see also iv. 143), and predicts to Xerxes his defeat by the Greeks (vii. Io et seq., 46 et seq.) ; Xerxes sent him home to govern the empire during the campaign (vii. 53).
2. Vizier of Xerxes (Ctesias, Pers., 20), whom he murdered in 465 B.C. According to Aristotle (Pol., v. 1311b), he had previously killed Xerxes' son Darius, and was afraid that the father would avenge him; according to Ctesias (Pers., 2g, Justin iii. Diod. xi. 69), he killed Xerxes first, and then pretended that Darius had murdered him, and instigated his brother Artaxerxes to avenge the parricide. At all events, during the first months of the reign of Artaxerxes I. he was the ruling power in the State (therefore the chronographers wrongly reckon him as king, with a reign of seven months), until Artaxerxes, having learned the truth about the murder of his father and his brother, overwhelmed and killed Artabanus and his sons in open fight.
3. A satrap of Bactria, who revolted against Artaxerxes I., but was defeated in two battles (Ctesias, Pers., 31) .
The name was borne also by four Parthian kings. The Parthian king Arsaces, who was attacked by Antiochus III. in 209, has been called Artabanus by some modern authors without adequate reason.
4. ARTABANUS I., successor of his nephew Phraates II. about 127 B.c., perished in a battle against the Tochari, a Mongolian tribe, which had invaded the E. of Iran (Justin xli. 2) . He is perhaps the Artabanus mentioned in Trogus, Prol. xlii.
5. ARTABANUS II. (c. A.D. 10-40), son of an Arsacid princess (Tac., Ann., ii. 3), lived in the E. among the Dahan nomads. He was raised to the throne by those Parthian grandees who would not acknowledge Vonones I., whom Augustus had sent from Rome. The war between the two pretenders was long and doubt ful; but at last Artabanus defeated his rival completely and occupied Ctesiphon; Vonones fled to Armenia, where he was acknowledged as king, under the protection of the Romans. But when Artabanus invaded Armenia, Vonones fled to Syria, and the Emperor Tiberius thought it prudent to support him no longer. Germanicus, whom he sent to the E., concluded a treaty with Artabanus. Armenia was given (A.D. 18) to Zeno, the son of the king of Pontus (Tac., Ann., ii. 3 et seq., 58; Joseph., Ant., 18. 24).
Artabanus II., like all Parthian princes, was much troubled by the opposition of the grandees. To strengthen his power he killed all the Arsacid princes whom he could reach (Tac., Ann., vi. 31). Rebellions of the subject nations may have occurred also. We learn that he intervened in the Greek city Seleucia in favour of the oligarchs (Tac., Ann., vi. 44), and that two Jewish brigands maintained themselves for years in Neerda in the swamps of Babylonia, and were acknowledged as dynasts by Artabanus (Jos., Ant., 18. 9). In A.D. 35 he tried anew to conquer Armenia, and to establish his son Arsaces as king there. A war with Rome seemed inevitable. But that party among the Par thian magnates which was hostile to Artabanus applied to Ti berius for a king of the race of Phraates. Tiberius sent Phraates' grandson, Tiridates III., and ordered L. Vitellius (the father of the emperor) to restore the Roman authority in the East. Vitel lius succeeded completely, and Artabanus, deserted by his fol lowers, fled to the East. Tiridates, who was proclaimed king, could no longer maintain himself, because he appeared to be a vassal of the Romans ; Artabanus returned from Hyrcania with a strong army of Scythian (Dahan) auxiliaries, and was again acknowledged by the Parthians. Tiridates left Seleucia and fled to Syria. But Artabanus was not strong enough for a war with Rome; he therefore concluded a treaty with Vitellius, in which he gave up all further pretensions (A.D. 37). A short time after wards Artabanus was deposed again, and took refuge with his vassal, the king Izates of Adiabene, who induced the Parthians to restore him once more to the throne (Jos., Ant., 20. 3) . Shortly afterwards Artabanus died, and was succeeded by his son, Vardanes, whose reign was still more turbulent than that of his father.
6. ARTABANUS III. reigned a short time in A.D. 8o (on a coin of this year he calls himself Arsaces Artabanus) and the follow ing years, and supported a pretender who rose in Asia Minor under the name of Nero (Zonaras xi. 18), but could not maintain himself against Pacorus II.
(En. M.)