Pissuthnes, Satrap of Lydia

Lydia, a region of ancient civilization, traditionally closely tied to the Greek world, was after the Persian conquest an important outpost of the relations between the Achaemenid empire and the Greeks. Sardis, the capital city of the Lydian kingdom and later of the satrapy of Lydia (Sparda, i.e. Sardis, for the Persians), was the most notable city of coastal Asia Minor. The satraps who succeeded one another in that seat pursued (on behalf of the Great King and often also autonomously) an intense policy of complex relations with the Greeks of Asia Minor and of mainland Greece. About one of these satraps, Pissuthnes (ante 440-15 B.C.), son of Hystaspes and probably a member of the royal family, the sources give us some sporadic pieces of information, which enable us, however, to reconstruct a coherent anti-Athenian policy, inserted in the context of the so-called Peace of Callias of 449 (in any way we want to interpret it).