Arsames (son of Darius I)

Arsames Satrap of Egypt
Lower half of one of the Elephantine papyri, containing a plea for the reconstruction of the Jewish temple at Elephantine, and dated to "..the Year 17 of King Darius (II), under Arsames..." (407 BCE).
Predecessor	Achaemenes
Successor	possibly none (end of the satrapy of Egypt)
Dynasty	27th Dynasty
Pharaoh	Artaxerxes I to Darius II

Arsames (also called Sarsamas and Arxanes, from the Old Persian Aršāma) was an Achaemenid satrap of ancient Egypt during the 5th century BC, at the time of the 27th Dynasty of Egypt.

According to Ctesias, Sarsamas was appointed satrap by general Megabyzus. Previously, an ancient Egyptian prince called Inaros openly revolted against Artaxerxes I and the Achaemenid rule and slained in battle the late satrap, Achaemenes. In 454 BC, shortly after his appointment, Arsames helped quelling the revolt by defeating Athenian reinforcements sent in the Nile Delta.
After the revolt, Arsames undertook a conciliatory policy towards the native Egyptians in order to avoid anything that could trigger new revolts; likely for this reason, he allowed Inaros' son Thannyras to maintain his lordship on part of the Delta, as reported by Herodotus.

While his aforementioned early career is reported only by Greek sources, Arsames' later life is known instead by several letters written in Aramaic, mainly compiled by the Jewish priesthood of Elephantine and belonging to the Elephantine papyri, and which are datable from 428 BC onwards. It is known that in 423 BC he supported Darius II in his successful coup d'état, and later he was called back to Susa in Persia between 410 to 407/6 as reported by other documents, among these some exchange letters with his estate manager Nakhtihor and with a man named Artavant who probably acted as satrap of Egypt ad interim.
While benevolent, and particularly towards the established Jewish community of Elephantine, when the Jews were criticised for pretending to sacrifice goats in the local temple of Khnum, Arsames felt himself compelled to avoid any controversy by prohibiting such practice.