the orange, lemon, and citron come to great perfection. In 1083 Arta was taken by Bobemund of Tarentum; in 1449 it fell into the hands of the Turks, and in 1688 it was cap tured by the Venetians. In 1 797 it was held by the French, but in the following year, 1798, AH Pasha of Joannina made himself master of it. During the Greek struggle for independence it suffered severely, and was the scene of several conflicts, in which the ultimate success was with the
Turks. An insurrection in 1854 was at once repressed.ARTA (Arachthus), a river of Albania, which rises partly in Mount Lakmon, and partly in the heights between Lingon and Mitzekeli, flows south for upwards of forty miles along the eastern side of the Kilberini Mountains, and falls into the Gulf of Arta.
ARTA, Gulf of, the Sinus Ambracius of the ancients, is a large and beautiful inlet of the Ionian sea, twenty-five miles long and ten broad, the northern shores of which belong to Turkey, and the southern and eastern to Greece. Its only important affluent, besides the Arta, is the Luro (Charadra) also from the north. It abounds with mullets, soles, and eels. Around its shores are numerous ruins of ancient cities, as well as several flourishing modern towns, of which may be mentioned Actium at the entrance, Nicopolis, Previsa, Arta, Argos, Limnoea, Karavasaras, OlpfK, and Vonitza.
ARTAXERXES, a royal Persian name, borne first by several of the kings of the Achsemenian dynasty of the Persian empire, and found also in the later Sassanian dynasty. The original and native form of the name, as ascertained from the cuneiform inscriptions of ancient Persia, is Artalihshatra (see Rawlinson, Jour. Asiat. Soc. xi. p. 35). The Hebrew transcript, occurring with slight differences of spelling in different passages of the Old Testament, is Artakhshasta the Assyrian, Sartalchshatra the Scythic, Irtalcsassa, all closely answering to the original. The Greek Apra&fpfqs, from which the English form is taken, is less correct, and is misleading through the assimilation of the latter part of the name to the other royal name Xerxes, with v. T hicli the word before us has etyniologically no connection. In later times the name assumes the slightly modified forms of Artachslietr (De Sacy, Antiquites de la Per$3, p. 100), and Ardeshir ( Aprafap^s and Aprar/p, in Agathias). In regard to the etymology and meaning of the name there is a general consensus of opinion among modern scholars. Herodotus (vi. 98) was misled by the Greek transcription, when, having rendered Xerxes, Warrior (dp?;ios), he rendered Artaxerxes, Great Warrior (/xeyas dp^i os). The elements of the name are arta, an intensive particle or adjective, connected with the Zend areta, high or honoured (in Skr. rita) ; and khshatra, kingdom or dominion, which occurs both in Zend and Sanscrit (Raw linson, Jour. Asiat. Soc., xi. 35 ; Lassen, Ueber die Keil- inschriflen, p. 161 ; Oppert, Les insertions des Acheme- nides, p. 299 ; Spiegel, Die altpersisclien Keilinschriften, p. 185). Lassen translates the name, Exalted in dominion.
It is known that throne-names, or names appropriated to royalty, were in use among the Persians as among other Eastern nations (cf. Heeren, Ideen, i. pp. 138, 401 ; Baehr s Ctesias, p. 195). Thus the great Cyrus is said to have been called Agradatus before his accession to the throne. The second and third Darius had both also private names, the one Ochus, and the other Codomannus. To the class of royal names belongs the name Artaxerxes. To this use its significance is alone suitable, and in the earliest times, at least, it is not found appropriated by any save either the possessors of, or the pretenders to, royalty. In regard to the most of those about to be mentioned, we have express testimony that they took this name only when they ascended the throne.
It will be convenient first to mention the Achcemenian kings thus designated in the Greek historians and the old Persian inscriptions, and then consider the questions connected with the identification of these with the kin f -<3 of this name occurring in Scripture.
1. Artaxerxes, surnamed [ Greek ], or Longimanus (by Persian authors, Diraz-dest), the long-handed, so called, says Plutarch ( Vita Artax., i.), because his right hand was longer than his left, or perhaps (see Malcolm, Hist, of Persia, i. p. 66) the long-armed (cf. Edward Longshanks), was the son of the famous Xerxes, the invader of Greece, and succeeded his father in 465 B.C. According to Josephus (Ant. Jud., xi. 6, I), he was originally called Cyrus. His reign was marked by the revolt of Egypt under Inarus, in which the Athenians were abettors of the Egyptians, and which was quelled by the Persian general Megabyzus, in 455 B.C. ; and by the ratification of the peace of Callias with Athens in 449 B.C. Of the architectural and inscribed remains of the ancient Persian empire very little is recognisable as due to this king. He is recorded in an inscription by his grandson, the next Artaxerxes, as the repairer (?) of the palace at Susa (Loftus, Chaldcea and Susiana, p. 372 ; Norris, Jour. Asiat. Soc., xv. pp. 157-162). There is extant a frag mentary inscription in old Persian, with an Assyrian translation, which seems to have proceeded from him ; and a legend upon a vase at Venice, of Egyptian origin, which reads " Artaxerxes the great king," may with considerable assurance be also referred to this monarch (Oppert, op. cit. pp. 288-290). Artaxerxes died in 425 B.C. after a reign of forty years.
2. The next sovereign that falls to be noticed here was the grandson of the preceding, and the son of the inter mediate monarch, Darius Nothus. His original and private name was Arsaces, and he assumed that of Artaxerxes on ascending the throne (Ctesias, Exc. Pers. 57 ; Plutarch, Vita Artax., c. 2). The date of his accession is 405 B.C. It is this Artaxerxes, commonly surnamed Mnemon, from the retentiveness of his memory, whose reign was distin guished by the attempt of his brother, the younger Cyrus, to gain possession of the crown, and by the victory of Cunaxa 401 B.C., the death of Cyrus, and the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, immortalised by Xenophon. Other prominent events of this reign were the peace of Antalcidas in 399 B.C., and the Cyprian revolt, with the defeat of Evagoras its leader, about 380 B.C. Arta xerxes Mnemon died in 359 B.C., after a reign of forty- six years. The Greek sources for this reign are com paratively abundant. Besides Xenophon, Ctesias, Diodorus, and others, Plutarch has furnished a special life of this monarch. The only native memorial of his reign is the inscription already referred to, found at Susa on the bases of pillars belonging to the royal residence there, which runs thus : " Says Artaxerxes, the great King, the King of Kings, the King of the countries, the King of this earth, the son of King Darius ; Darius was the son of King Artaxerxes, Artaxerxes was the son of Xerxes, Xerxes was the son of King Darius, Darius was the son of Hystaspes, the Achsemenian. Darius, my ancestor, built this temple (or edifice), and afterwards it was repaired (?) by Artaxerxes, my grandfather. By the help of Ahuramazda I placed Anahita and Mithra in this temple. May Ahuramazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me." (See N orris in Loftus, op. cit. p. 372 ; Jour. Asiat. Soc., xv. p. 159 ; Spiegel, op. cit. p. 65.) The inscription, compared with earlier texts, shows a certain negligence of style, and is interesting for the prominence, unparalleled in previous records, given to the worship of the subordinate deities Anahita, or Tanaitis, and Mithra.
on securing the crown, took the same royal name, and is
usually known as Artaxerxes Ochus. The commencement
