Abistamenes

Who is Abistamenes?

Abistamenes was a governor, or satrap, of Cappadocia, or at least of its southern portions, with Ariarathes I of Cappadocia possibly governing the north. He is called Sabictas by Arrian, and was almost certainly a native Cappadocian. Gronovius conjectures that instead of Abistamene Cappadociae praeposito we ought to read Abicta magnae Cappadociae, &c.

Abistamenes was the successor to Mithrobuzanes, the last Achaemenid satrap of Cappadocia. Mithrobouzanes was killed at the Battle of the Granicus, and Abistamenes was thereafter appointed satrap by Alexander the Great, although his hold over Cappadocia appears to have been weak, as Cappadocian soldiers were found fighting for King Darius III of Persia during the Battle of Gaugamela. Abistamenes may no longer even have been in power at that point, however, as he seems to disappear in the wake of the Battle of Issus.

The rule of Abistamenes was certainly long done by the time of Alexander's death in 323 BC, when the entirety of Cappadocia was given by Alexander's heirs to Eumenes to govern.