Bessus

Bessus, also known as Artaxerxes V (died summer 329 BC), was a prominent Persian Satrap of Bactria in Persia, and later self-proclaimed King of Kings of Persia. According to classical sources, he killed his predecessor and relative,Darius III, after the Persian army had been defeated by Alexander the Great. He was executed by Alexander in 329 BC.

At the Battle of Gaugamela (1 October 331 BC), in which Alexander defeated Darius III, Bessus commanded the left wing of the Persian army, chiefly composed of warriors from his Satrapy who had been mobilized before the Battle of Issus. The envelopment ordered by Darius failed and the Persians lost the battle after hours of fierce fighting. Bessus survived the battle and remained with his king, whose routed army eluded Alexander's forces and spent the winter in Ecbatana. The next year Darius attempted to flee to Bactria in the east. Bessus, conspiring with fellow satraps, deposed Darius and put him in golden chains. It is not clear whether Bessus was motivated primarily by personal ambition or by disillusionment with Darius as a leader. He may have intended to surrender the deposed king to the Macedonians, but Alexander ordered his forces to continue to pursue the Persians.

According to sources, the panicked conspirators stabbed Darius and left him dying in a cart to be found by a Macedonian soldier. The Babylonian Chronicle known as BCHP 1 indicates this happened in July 330 BC. The site has been identified near modern Ahuan.

Bessus immediately proclaimed himself King of Kings of Persia and adopted the throne name Artaxerxes (V). His self-proclaimed ascension was logical, since the Satrap of Bactria, known as Mathišta, was the Persian noble next in the line of succession to the Persian throne. But since most of the Persian Empire had already been conquered and Bessus only ruled over a loose alliance of those provinces not yet occupied by the Macedonians, historians do not generally regard him as an official King of Kings of Persia.

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