LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Academy · Biography & Mythology

Phraortes

Φραόρτης

(Φραόρτης) was, according to Herodotus, the second king of Media, and the son of Deioces, whom he succeeded. He reigned twenty-two years (B. C. 656-634). He first conquered the Persians, and then subdued the greater part of Asia, but was at length defeated and killed while laying siege to Ninus (Nineveh), the capital of the Assyrian empire. He was succeeded by his son Cyaxares. (Hdt. 1.73, 102.) This Phraortes is slid to be the same as the Truteno of the Zendavesta, and to be called Feridun in the Shah-Nameh. (Hammer in Wien. Jahrb. vol. ix. p. 13, &c.).

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.