Tissaphernes was a Persian commander and statesman, Satrap of Lydia and Ionia. His life is mostly known from the works of Thucydides and Xenophon. According to Ctesias, he was the son of Hidarnes III and therefore, the great grandson of Hydarnes, one of the six conspirators who had supported the rise of Darius the Great.
Tissaphernes was Satrap of Lydia, including Ionia, under the Achaemenid Empire.
Coin of Tissaphernes, with ΤΙΣΣΑ ("TISSA") clearly visible below neck. Astyra, Mysia. Circa 400-395 BC
Coinage of Phokaia, Ionia, circa 478-387 BC. Possible portrait of Satrap Tissaphernes, with satrapal headress, but since these coins have no markings, attribution remains uncertain.
Cyrus the Younger was an Achaemenid prince and general. He ruled as satrap of Lydia and Ionia from 408 to 401 BC. Son of Darius II and Parysatis, he died in 401 BC in battle during a failed attempt to oust his elder brother, Artaxerxes II, from the Persian throne.
Relief depicting Artaxerxes II, from his tomb at Naqsh-e Rostam, Persepolis
Meeting between Cyrus the Younger and Spartan general Lysander in Sardis. The encounter was related by Xenophon. Maiolica decoration by Francesco Antonio Grue (1686–1746).
Jean-Adrien Guignet, Episode in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand (1842). The Greek mercenaries of Cyrus (the "Ten Thousand"), are shown being encircled.