The Second after the King and Achaemenid Bactria on Classical Sources MANEL GARCÍA SÁNCHEZ Universidad de Barcelona–CEIPAC* ABSTRACT The government of the Achaemenid Satrapy of Bactria is frequently associated in Classical sources with the Second after the King. Although this relationship did not happen in all the cases of succession to the Achaemenid throne, there is no doubt that the Bactrian government considered it valuable and important both for the stability of the Empire and as a reward for the loser in the succession struggle to the Achaemenid throne. KEYWORDS Achaemenid succession – Achaemenid Bactria – Achaemenid Kingship Crown Princes – porphyrogenesis Beyond the tradition that made of Zoroaster the King of the Bactrians, Rege Bactrianorum, qui primus dicitur artes magicas invenisse (Justinus 1.1.9), Classical sources sometimes relate the Satrapy of Bactria –the Persian Satrapy included Sogdiana as well (Briant 1984, 71; Briant 1996, 403 s.)– along with the princes of the Achaemenid royal family and especially with the ruled out prince in the succession, the second in line to the throne, sometimes appointed in the sources as “the second after the King” (ὁ įİύIJİȡȠȢ ȝİIJ੹ IJȞ ΒαıȚȜ੼αν secundus a rege) (Volkmann 1937–8; Benveniste 1966, 51–65; García Sánchez 2005, 228 s.; 2009, 166 s.). The Greek and Roman authors, Herodotus, Pompeius Trogus–Justin, Arrian or Plutarch, pay special attention to the fratricidal struggle and harem royal intrigues among the successors to the throne in the Achaemenid Empire (Shahbazi 1993; García Sánchez 2005; 2009, 155–175). It is in this context where we might find some explicit references to the reward for the prince who lost the succession dispute: the offer of the government of Bactria as a compensation for the damage done after not having been chosen as a successor of the Great King (Sancisi–Weerdenburg 1980, 122–139; Briant 1984, 69–80). In this particular case and in the Achaemenid Bactria on the whole, our documentary dossier takes the sources from the Classical authors (Briant 1984, 10), whose mental picture of Bactria, natio antehac belatrix et potentissima,