Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Achaemenes
ACHAE'MENES (Ἀχαιμένης). 1. The ancestor of the Persian kings, who founded the family of the Achaemenidae (Ἀχαιμενίδαι), which was the noblest family of the Pasargadae, the noblest of the Persian tribes. Achaemenes is said to have been brought up by an eagle. According to a genealogy given by Xerxes, the following waa the order of the descent: Achaemenes, Teïspes, Cambyses, Cyrus, Teïspes, Ariaramnes, Arsames, Ilystaspes, Darius, Xerxes. (Herod, i. 125, vii. 11; Aelian, Hist. Anim. xii. 21.) The original seat of this family was Achaemenia in Persis. (Steph. s.v. Ἀχαιμενία) The Roman poets use the adjective Achaemenius in the sense of Persian. (Hon Carm. iii. 1. 44, xiii. 8 ; Ov. Ar. Am. L 226, Met. iv. 212.)
2. The son of Darius I. was appointed by his brother Xerxes governor of Egypt, b. c. 484. Ho commanded the Egyptian fleet in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, and strongly opposed tho prudent advice of Demaratus. When Egypt revolted under Inarus the Libyan in b. c. 460, Achaemenes was sent to subdue it, but was defeated and killed in battle by Inarus. (Herod, iii. 12, vii. 7, 97, 236 ; Diod. xi. 74.)