ACHAEMENES (HAKHAMANI)  , the eponymous ancestor of the royal house of Persia, the Achaemenidae, " a clan cppirrprl of the Pasargadae " (Herod. i . 125), the leading Persian tribe . According to Darius in the Behistun inscription and Herod. iii . 75, II, he was the father of Teispes, the great-grandfather of Cyrus . Cyrus himself, in his proclamation to the Babylonians after the conquest of Babylon, does not mention his name . Whether he really was a historical personage, or merely the mythical ancestor of the family, cannot be decided . According to Aelian (His'. anim. xii . 21), he was bred by an eagle . We learn from Cyrus's proclamation that Teispes and his successors had become kings of Anshan, i.e. a part of Elam (Susiana), where they ruled as vassals of the Median kings, until Cyrus the Great in 550 B.C. founded the Persian empire . After the death of Cambyses, the younger line of the Achaemenidae came to the throne with Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who was, like Cyrus, the great-grandson of Teispes . Cyrus, Darius and all the later kings of Persia call themselves Achaemenides (Hakhamanishiya) . With Darius III .

Codomannus the

dynasty becameextinct and the Persian empire came to an end (330) . The adjective Achaemenius is used by the Latin poets as the equivalent of " Persian " (Horace, Odes, ii . 12, 21) . See PERSIA . The name Achaemenes is borne by a son of Darius I., brother of Xerxes . After the first rebellion of Egypt, he became satrap of Egypt (484 B.C.); he commanded the Persian fleet at Salamis, and was (46o B.C.) defeated and slain by Inarus, the leader of the second rebellion of Egypt .