Intaphrenes

Intaphrenes was a Persian, one of the seven who in September 522 BCE helped Darius I seize the throne of the Achaemenid Empire from Bardiya. He then became Darius's bow carrier, a high position in which the Behistun Inscription shows him. In 521 BCE Darius sent him at the head of an army against Arakha, who had claimed the throne of Babylon as Nebuchadnezzar IV; Babylon was taken without much fighting on 27 November, and Arakha and his chief followers were impaled. In the account of Herodotus, Intaphrenes was later put to death after he cut off the ears and noses of two officers who barred his way to the king, and Darius, fearing a revolt, killed his family except his wife's brother and son.