Artaxerxes IV Arses

Artaxerxes IV (old-Persian Artakhšaça): name of a Achaemenian king of the Persian empire, ruled 338-336. His real name was Arses.
Arses was a son of the Persian king Artaxerxes III Ochus (358-338), and the only one who survived the poisoning of the royal family by the powerful eunuch Bagoas. This happened in the summer of 336, and it is probable that Bagoas killed everyone to make sure that Arses, who seems to have been some sort of a puppet king, became the new ruler of the Persian empire.

From cuneiform texts, we know that Arses accepted the same throne name as his father and grandfather, Artaxerxes.

The assassination caused great upheavals in the Persian empire and it is certain that Bagoas and Artaxerxes IV were unable to get a firm grasp on the situation. At least two satrapies revolted: Egypt, which had recently been conquered by Artaxerxes III, and Babylonia (although the evidence for the insurrection of Nidin-Bêl is meager). To add to these troubles, the king of Macedonia, Philip, prepared an attack on Persia's possessions in what is now Turkey: his trusted general Parmenion crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 336.

Under these circumstances, it comes as no surprise that the Persian nobility was divided. Prince Artašata, a distant relative of Artaxerxes, seems to exercised pressure. He was a powerful man and a formidable warrior, and he received support from several noblemen (e.g., Pharnabazus). It seems that Artaxerxes wanted to remove Bagoas (click here for the story) and that this forced Bagoas to kill this king as well (summer of 336). Artašata now became king under the name of Darius III Codomannus.

One of his first acts was the execution of Bagoas. For a few months there was a respite: there was a strong king who was able to reunite the kingdom, and Philip was murdered (October 336). Moreover, a Greek mercenary general in Persian service, Memnon of Rhodes, started to push back Parmenion. However, Philip was succeeded by his young son Alexander the Great, who joined Parmenion (May 334), and launched the campaign that ended with the fall of the Persian empire (330).

In 324, Alexander married to Arses' sister Parysatis.

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