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Memnon of Rhodes

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Brother of Mentor, with whom he entered the services of the rebellious satrap Artabazus of Phrygia, who married his sister. Mentor after the conquest of Egypt rose high in the favour of the king, and Memnon, who had taken refuge with Artabazus at the Macedonian court, became a zealous adherent of the Persian king; he assisted Mentor in subduing the rebellious satraps and dynasts in Asia Minor, and succeeded him as general of the Persian troops. In the pseudo-Aristotelian Oeconomica, ii. 28, stories are told of his methods of obtaining money and evading his obligations; thus he extorted a large sum of money from the conquered inhabitants of Lampsacus and cheated his soldiers out of a part of their pay. He owned a large territory in eastern Troas (Arrian i. 17, 8; Strabo xiii. 587). He gained some successes against Philip II.

of Macedon in 336 (Diod. xvii. 6; Polyaen. v. 44, 4, 5) and commanded the Persian army against Alexander's invasion.

Convinced that it was impossible to meet Alexander in a pitched battle, his plan was to lay waste the country and retire into the interior, meanwhile organizing resistance on sea (where the Persians were far superior to the Macedonians) and carrying the war into Greece. But his advice was overridden by the Persian satraps, who forced him to fight at the Granicus. After his defeat he tried to organize the maritime war and occupied the Greek islands, but in the beginning of 333 he fell ill and died (Arrian ii. 1, 1). (ED. M.)