Arses, Narses
or OARSES (
Ἄρσης, Νάρσης, or
Ὀάρσης), the youngest son of king Artaxerxes III. (Ochus.)
After the eunuch Bagoas had poisoned Artaxerxes, he raised Arses to the throne, B. C. 339; and that he might have the young king completely under his power, he caused the king's brothers to be put to death; but one of them, Bisthanes, appears to have escaped their fate. (Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 3.19.) Arses, however, could but ill brook the indignities committed against his own family, and the bondage in which he himself was kept; and as soon as Bagoas perceived that the king was disposed to take vengeance, he had him and his children too put to death, in the third year of his reign.
The royal house appears to have been thus destroyed with the exception of the above-mentioned Bisthanes, and Bagoas raised Dareius Codomannus to the throne. (
Diod. 17.5;
Strab. xv. p.736; Plut.
de Fort. Alex. 2.3,
Artax. 1; Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 2.14; Ctesias,
Pers. p. 151, ed. Lion; Syncell. pp. 145, 392, 394, 487, ed. Dindorf.)
[
L.S]
