High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Artaxerxes I was king of the Persian Empire from 464 BC to 424 BC. He was the son of Xerxes I of Persia and Amestris, daughter of Otanes. He is also surnamed "Macrocheir (Latin = Longimanus)", allegedly because his right hand was longer than his left. The Russian Rurikid family Dolgoruki claimed descent from him via the Armenian house of Pahlavuni. After Persia had been defeated at Eurymedon, military action between Greece and Persia was at a standstill. When Artaxerxes I took power, he began a new tradition of weakening the Athenians by funding their enemies in Greece. This indirectly caused the Athenians to move the treasury of the Delian League from the island of Delos to the Athenian acropolis. This funding practice inevitably prompted renewed fighting in 450 BC, where the Greeks attacked at the Battle of Cyprus. After Cimon's failure to attain much in this expedition, the Peace of Callias was agreed between Athens, Argos and Persia in 449 BC. Artaxerxes I offered asylum to Themistocles, who was the winner of the Battle of Salamis, after Themistocles was ostracized from Athens.