He was traditionally claimed to have briefly been king of Persia during the Achaemenid dynasty, and to have given up the throne and declared loyalty to his relative Cyrus II of Persia before retiring to his family estate in the Persian heartland of Parsa, living there peacefully for the rest of his life, perhaps nominally exercising the duties of a "lesser king" under the authority of the "Great King".

[4] In an inscription allegedly found in Hamadan[5] he is called "king of Persia", but the document is widely argued to be a fake, either modern or ancient.

Another attestation of his reign is the Behistun Inscription, where his grandson Darius I lists him among his ancestors, although he does not explicitly mention him as being one of the anonymous eight kings whom he claims preceded him.

Arsames lived to see his grandson, Darius I, become the Great King of the Persian Empire, though he died during his reign.

Arsames and his son Hystaspes are noted as being alive in 522 BC,[4] indicating that he had survived well into old age.