Arsames was an
Achaemenid prince, a grandson of Darius the Great. According to
Ctesias,
Sarsamas was appointed satrap by general
Megabyzus. Previously, an ancient Egyptian prince called
Inaros openly revolted against
Artaxerxes I and the Achaemenid rule and had slain in battle the satrap,
Achaemenes. In 454 BC, shortly after his appointment, Arsames helped suppress the revolt by defeating
Athenian reinforcements sent in the
Nile Delta. After the revolt, Arsames undertook a conciliatory policy towards the native Egyptians in order to avoid igniting new revolts; likely for this reason, he allowed Inaros' son Thannyras to maintain his lordship on part of the Delta, as
Herodotus reports. and with a man named Artavant who probably acted as satrap of Egypt
ad interim. In 410 BCE a revolt erupted at Elephantine, where an established Jewish community lived along with the native Egyptians, and where the two communities had their local temple, that of
Yahu and
Khnum respectively. Jews were well tolerated by Arsames and by the Persian occupants in general; however, it seems that the Jewish practice of
sacrificing goats to their god was perceived as an insult by the clergy of the neighbouring temple of the Egyptian ram-headed deity Khnum. Taking advantage of one of Arsames' absences, the clergy of Khnum corrupted a local military commander, Vidaranag, and unimpededly instigated and succeeded into the destruction of the temple of Yahu. Upon his return, Arsames punished the perpetrators, but he felt himself compelled to avoid any controversy by prohibiting the ritual slaughter of goats. Arsames is no longer mentioned after 406 BC, and it is likely that he died shortly before the
Egyptian reconquest of Egypt achieved by the native pharaoh
Amyrtaios in 404 BC. ==Seal of Arsames==