Artabanus (son of Hystaspes)

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Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, was a wise member of the Achaemenid royal family. He was Darius I’s brother and Xerxes I’s uncle. He advised Darius not to invade Scythia, warning that the Scythians would be hard to defeat. The campaign went ahead anyway and failed, just as Artabanus predicted. According to Herodotus, Artabanus once saw a ghost telling him to allow the invasion of Greece, which helped push him and Xerxes to attack. Artabanus had a son named Artyphius, who became a general for Xerxes in the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC). Artyphius commanded the Gandharian and Dadicae contingents and was likely a cousin of Xerxes.