satrap

A satrap was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. A satrapy is the territory governed by a satrap. A satrap served as a viceroy to the king, though with considerable autonomy. The word came to suggest tyranny or ostentatious splendour, and its modern usage is a pejorative and refers to any subordinate or local ruler, usually with unfavourable connotations of corruption. Etymology The word is derived via Latin from Greek satrápes, itself borrowed from an Old Iranian *khshathra-pa. In Old Persian, which was the native language of the Achaemenids, it is recorded as khshathapavan (, literally "protector of the province"). The Median form is reconstructed as *khshathrapavan-. The Biblical Hebrew form is aḥashdarpan , as found in Esther 3:12. In the Parthian (language of the Arsacid Empire) and Middle Persian (the language of the Sassanian Empire), it is recorded in the forms šahrab and šasab, respectively.