Bessus

• A Bessian; v. Bessi. —
• II Βῆσσος, a viceroy of Bactria, the murderer of Darius Codomannus, Curt. 5, 8, 4; 5, 9, 2; Just. 12, 5, 10.

(Βῆσσος), was satrap of Bactria in the time of Dareius III. (Codomannus), who saw reason to suspect him of treachery soon after the battle of Issus, and summoned him accordingly from his satrapy to Babylon, where he was collecting forces for the continuance of the war. (Curt. 4.6.1.) At the battle of Arbela, B. C. 331, Bessus commanded the left wing of the Persian army, and was thus directly opposed to Alexander himself. (Curt. 4.12.6; Arr. Anab. iii. p. 59e.) After this battle, when the fortunes of Dareius seemed hopelessly ruined, Bessus formed a plot with Nabarzanes and others to seize the king, and either to put him to death and make themselves masters of the emlpire, or to deliver him up to Alexander, according to circumstances. Soon after the flight of Dareius from Ecbatana (where, after the battle of Arbela, he had taken refuge), the conspirators, who had the Bactrian troops at their command, succeeded in possessing themselves of the king's person, and placed him in chains. But, being closely pressed in pursuit by Alexander, and having in vain urged Dareius to mount a horse and continue his flight with them, they filled up by his murder the measure of their treason, B. C. 330. (Curt. 5.9_13; Arr. Anab. iii. pp. 68, 69; Diod. 17.73; Plut. Alex. 42.) After this deed Bessus fled into Bactria, where he collected a considerable force, and assumed the name and insignia of royalty, with the title of Artaxerxes. (Curt. 6.6.13; Arr. Anab. iii. p. 71d.) On the approach of Alexander, he fled from him beyond the Oxus, but was at length betrayed by two of his followers, and fell into the hands of Ptolemy, whom Alexander had sent forward to receive him. (Curt. 7.5; Arr. Anab. iii. p. 75; comp. Strab. xi. p.513.) He was brought naked before the conqueror, and, having been scourged, was sent to Zariaspa, the capital of Bactria (Strab. xi. p.514) : here, a council being afterwards held upon him, he was sentenced to suffer mutilation of his nose and ears, and was delivered for execution to Oxathres, the brother of Dareius, who put him to a cruel death. The mode of it is variously related, and Plutarch even makes Alexander himself the author of the shocking barbarity which he describes. (Curt. 7.5, 10; Arr. Anab. iv. p. 82d.; Ptolem. and Aristobul. apud Arr. Anab. iii. ad fin.; Diod. 17.83; Plut. Alex. 43; Just. 12.5.) [E.E]

(Βῆσσος). A satrap of Bactria under Darius III., who, after the defeat of Darius by Alexander the Great at Arbela (B.C. 331), seized him with the intention of carrying him as a prisoner to his own satrapy. Being hotly pursued by the Macedonians, he murdered his royal captive and made his own escape. He was subsequently delivered into the hands of Alexander, and that monarch, according to one account (Justin, xii. 5), gave him up for punishment to the brother of Darius. Plutarch, however, states that Alexander himself punished the offender in the following manner: He caused two straight trees to be bent, and one of his legs to be made fast to each; then suffering the trees to return to their former posture, his body was torn asunder by the violence of the recoil ( Plut. Alex.). Arrian makes Alexander to have caused his nostrils to be slit, the tips of his ears to be cut off, and the offender, after this, to have been sent to Ecbatana, and put to death in the sight of all the inhabitants of the capital of Media.