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Bagoas, the eunuch favorite of Alexander the Great, is the main character and narrator of The Persian Boy, a 1972 historical novel by Mary Renault.
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Bagoas and eunuch
* The Persian general and vizier, the eunuch Bagoas, falls out of favour with King Artaxerxes III.
The eunuch Bagoas ( not to be confused with Alexander's Bagoas ) was the Vizier of Artaxerxes III and IV, and was the primary power behind the throne during their reigns, until he was killed by Darius III.
( Bagoas is an old Persian word meaning eunuch.
Bagoas ( or Βαγώας, Greek transcription of Old Persian Bagoi ; died 336 BC ) was a eunuch who became the vizier ( Chief Minister ) to Artaxerxes III.
Bagoas was a historical figure, identified by the Roman historian Curtius as " a eunuch exceptional in beauty and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate.
: That Alexander may have been attracted to a eunuch is possible enough, and there is certainly testimony that he kept Bagoas with him at least some of the time.
Bagoas and favorite
* Bagoas ( 4th century BCE ): a favorite of Alexander the Great.
The Persian Boy is a 1972 historical novel written by Mary Renault and narrated by Bagoas, a young Persian from an aristocratic family who is captured by his father's enemies, castrated, and sold as a slave to the king Darius III, who makes him his favorite.
Bagoas and Alexander
Another of Darius ' generals ingratiated himself to Alexander by giving the conqueror Darius ' favored companion, Bagoas.
Bagoas ' house in Susa, with rich treasures, was presented by Alexander to Parmenion ( Plut.
Plutarch reports an angry letter from Alexander to Darius, naming Bagoas as one of the persons that organized the murder of his father, Philip II.
* Mary Renault has Bagoas give Alexander the Great an egg posset with honey, wine and cheese to break a long fast in her novel The Persian Boy.
In the novel, Bagoas is 15 years old when he begins his relationship with Alexander ( then about 26 ).
She movingly explores the tensions in the triangular relationship between Alexander and his two lovers, Hephaistion and Bagoas, and suggests that Alexander went mad with grief over Hephaistion's untimely death.
But there is no evidence that Bagoas was as important to, much less as influential over, Alexander as Renault paints.
However, she points out, quite correctly, that the historical sources name Bagoas, not Hephaistion, as the eromenos (" beloved ") of Alexander.
Curtius ' history of Alexander presents Bagoas as a vindictive schemer who revenges himself on a Persian noble named Orsines who failed to give him gifts by lying to Alexander about him, eventually succeeding in having him tried and executed.
Renault also points out that the incident in which the army clamored for Alexander to kiss Bagoas took place very soon after the crossing of the Gedrosian desert, when all those present were survivors of that harrowing incident.
Alexander was now employing eunuchs such as Bagoas ( not to be confused with another Bagoas, who was a contemporary high Persian official ) and was tolerant of such Persian customs as proskynesis, a sort of kow-tow thought to be degrading by many in the Macedonian army.
Bagoas and is
So Bagoas murders Artaxerxes III and all his sons, other than Arses, who is then placed on the throne by Bagoas.
Artaxerxes IV Arses is little more than a puppet-king while Bagoas acts as the power behind the throne.
When Darius tries to assert his independence from Bagoas ' control, Bagoas attempts to poison him, but the king is warned and forces Bagoas to drink the poison himself.
The " Petition to Bagoas " ( Sayce-Cowley collection ) is a letter written in 407 BCE to Bagoas, the Persian governor of Judea, appealing for assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple in Elephantine, which had recently been badly damaged by an anti-Semitic rampage on the part of a segment of the Elephantine community.
Bagoas and character
The historical identity of Nebuchadnezzar was unknown to the Church Fathers, but some of them attempted an improbable identification with Artaxerxes III Ochus, not on the basis of the character of the two rulers, but because of the presence of a " Holofernes " and a " Bagoas " in Ochus ' army.
Bagoas and Persian
After Artaxerxes III of Persia and all of his sons were killed by the vizier Bagoas, the vizier installed a cousin of Artaxerxes III, Artashata, to the Persian throne as Darius III.
However, when Bagoas discovered that Arses couldn ’ t be controlled, he had Arses killed in 336 BC, and installed on the throne Artashata, the last surviving legitimate heir to the Persian throne.
Mentor became general of the maritime provinces, suppressed the rebels in Egypt and sent Greek mercenaries to the king, while Bagoas administered the satrapies and gained such power that he was the real master of the Persian Empire towards the end of Artaxerxes III's reign ( Diod.
Bagoas, a Persian name denoting an official of Holofernes.
Bagoas ' narration provides both a Persian view of the conquest and an intimate look at the personality of the conqueror.
In Renault's view, Alexander's love for Bagoas influenced his desire to unite the Greek and Persian peoples.
Bagoas and by
Artaxerxes III of Persia and all of his sons except one, Arses, were assassinated by the orders of the vizier, Bagoas, who installed Arses on the throne as a puppet king.
Bagoas seeks to remain in office by replacing Artaxerxes with his youngest son Arses, whom he thinks will be easier to control.
* The young king of Persia, Arses, objects to being controlled by Bagoas and attempts to poison him.
Instead, Arses and all his children are killed by Bagoas.
His unexpected rise to the throne came in 338 BC as a result of the murder of his father and most of his family by Bagoas, when the vizier fell our of favour with Artaxerxes III.
Bagoas sought to remain in office by replacing Artaxerxes with his son Arses ( Artaxerxes IV ), whom he thought easier to control.
Eventually, disgruntled by this state of affairs and possibly influenced by the nobles of the Royal Court, who generally held Bagoas in contempt, Arses started planning Bagoas ' murder.
It was said that Bagoas became very wealthy by confiscating the sacred writings of the Egyptian temples and giving them back to the priests for large bribes ( Diod.
* Livius, Bagoas by Jona Lendering
His unexpected rise to the throne came in 338 BC as a result of the murder of his father and most of his family by Bagoas, the powerful Vizier of Persia who had recently fallen in Artaxerxes ' disfavor.
Bagoas sought to remain in office by replacing Artaxerxes with his son Arses ( Artaxerxes IV ), whom he thought easier to control.
Eventually, disgruntled by this state of affairs and possibly influenced by the nobles of the Royal Court, who generally held Bagoas in contempt, Arses started planning Bagoas ' murder.
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