Syennesis III (Ancient Greek:Συέννεσις) was a ruler ofancient Cilicia in the 5th century BCE.
Syennesis was a contemporary ofArtaxerxes II of Persia, and whenCyrus the Younger, marching against Artaxerxes in 401 BCE, arrived at the borders ofCilicia, he found the passes guarded by Syennesis, who, however, withdrew his troops on receiving intelligence that the force advanced by Cyrus underMeno had already entered Cilicia, and that the combined fleet of theLacedaemonians and the prince, underSamius andTamos, was sailing round fromIonia.
When Cyrus reachedTarsus, the Cilician capital, he found that Meno's soldiers had sacked the city, and commanded Syennesis to appear before him. Syennesis had fled for refuge to a stronghold among the mountains, but he was induced by his wife,Epyaxa, to obey the summons of Cyrus. Here he received gifts of honor from Cyrus, whom he supplied in his turn with a large sum of money and a considerable body of troops under the command of one of his sons.
At the same time, however, Syennesis took care to send his other son to Artaxerxes, to represent his meeting with Cyrus as having been something he'd been forced to do, while his heart all the time was with the king, Artaxerxes. FromXenophon's telling it appears that Syennesis at this time, though really a vassal of Persia, affected the tone of an independent sovereign.[1][2][3]
Rulers in theAchaemenid Empire | ||
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Family tree - Achaemenid Kingdom | ||
| Kings of Kings of theAchaemenid Empire |  | |
| Satraps ofLydia | ||
| Satraps ofHellespontine Phrygia | ||
| Satraps ofCappadocia | ||
| Greek Governors ofAsia Minor cities | ||
| Dynasts ofLycia | ||
| Dynasts ofCaria | ||
| Kings ofMacedonia | ||
| Kings of Tyre | ||
| Kings of Sidon |
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| Satraps ofArmenia | ||
| Satraps ofEgypt | ||
| Satraps ofBactria | ||
| Satraps ofMedia | ||
| Satraps ofCilicia | ||
| Other known satraps | ||
In most territories, Achaemenid rulers were succeeded byHellenistic satraps andHellenistic rulers from around 330 BC | ||
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Elder, Edward (1870)."Syennesis". InSmith, William (ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. p. 949.