Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Sogdianus

by William Smith

SOGDIA'NUS (Σογδιανός) or SECUNDIA'NUS (Σεκυνδιανός), as he is called by Ctesias, was one of the illegitimate sons of Artaxerxes I. Longimanus. The latter on his death in B. C. 425 was succeeded by legitimate son Xerxes II., but this monarch after a reign of only two months was murdered by Sogdianus, who now became king. Sogdianus, however, was murdered in his turn after a reign of seven months, by his brother Ochus, as is related in the life of the latter. Ochus reigned under the name of Dareius II. [Dareius II.] (Diod. xii. 71; Ctesias Pers. c. 44.)