Darius the Great gave the satrapies a definitive organization, increased their number to thirty-six, and fixed their annual tribute ( Behistun inscription).īagadates I (Minted 290–280 BC), the first indigenous satrap to be appointed by the Seleucid Empire The twenty-six satraps established by Cyrus were never kings, but viceroys ruling in the king's name, although in political reality many took advantage of any opportunity to carve themselves an independent power base.

The main difference was that in Persian culture the concept of kingship was indivisible from divinity: divine authority validated the divine right of kings. Up to the time of the conquest of Media by Cyrus the Great, emperors ruled the lands they conquered through client kings and governors. Karaburun tomb near Elmalı, Lycia Īlthough the first large-scale use of satrapies, or provinces, originates from the inception of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great, beginning at around 530 BCE, provincial organization actually originated during the Median era from at least 648 BCE. In modern Persian the descendant of khshathrapavan is shahrbān ( شهربان), but the components have undergone semantic shift so the word now means 'town keeper' ( shahr meaning 'town' + ban meaning 'keeper').Ī dignitary of Asia Minor in Achaemenid style, c.

In the Parthian (language of the Arsacid Empire) and Middle Persian (the language of the Sassanian Empire), it is recorded in the forms šahrab and šasab, respectively. The Biblical Hebrew form is aḥashdarpan אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפָּן, as found in Esther 3:12. It is cognate with Sanskrit kshetrapal ( क्षेत्रपाल). The Median form is reconstructed as *khshathrapavan. In Old Persian, which was the native language of the Achaemenids, it is recorded as khshathapavan ( 𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎱𐎠𐎺𐎠, literally 'protector of the province'). The word satrap is derived via Latin satrapes from Greek satrápes ( σατράπης), itself borrowed from an Old Iranian *khshathra-pa. Ī satrapy is the territory governed by a satrap. The word came to suggest tyranny or ostentatious splendour, and in modern usage refers to any subordinate or local ruler, usually with unfavourable connotations of corruption.

Ī satrap served as a viceroy to the king, though with considerable autonomy. The Herakleia head, probable portrait of an Achaemenid Empire Satrap of Asia Minor, end of 6th century BCE, probably under Darius I Ī satrap ( / ˈ s æ t r ə p/) was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.

Satrapi