Arbaces

Who is Arbaces?

Arbaces, according to Ctesias, one of the generals of Sardanapalus, king of Assyria and founder of the Median empire about 830 BC.Template:Chisholm

Ctesias’s whole history of the Assyrian and Median empires is absolutely fabulous; his Arbaces and his successors are not historical personages. But Ctesias’s whole history of the Assyrian and Median empire.

From the inscriptions of Sargon II of Assyria it is known that one Arbaku of Arnashia was one of forty-five chiefs of Median districts who paid tribute to Sargon in 713 BC. He was a satrap, who conspired against Sardanapalus, and founded the empire of Media on the ruins of the Assyrian kingdom.

Arbaces or Arbaku is also the Akkadian spelling for the name of the 6th Century BCE Median general, Harpagus.