Parysatis

Parysatis was very savvy and succeeded in assisting Darius II's ascent to the throne, even though he was a bastard and not a legitimate child.

According to the chapter on Artaxerxes II in Plutarch's Life, a young Persian soldier named Mithridates unknowingly struck Cyrus the Younger during the Battle of Cunaxa, making him fall from his horse, dazed.

Some eunuchs found Cyrus and tried to bring him to safety, but a Caunian among the king's camp followers struck a vein behind his knee with a dart, making him fall and strike his head on a stone, whereupon he died.

She likewise got vengeance on Masabates, the king's eunuch, who had cut off Cyrus' hand and head, by winning him from her son Artaxerxes in a game of dice and having him flayed alive.

Her brother, Terituchmes, loved one of his half-sisters more than his intended bride - Amestris, Darius II and Parysatis's daughter.

Terituchmes tried to start a rebellion, and Parysatis had all the family killed and only spared the life of Stateira at the request of her husband.

Reportedly the intense hatred between the two women led Parysatis to encourage Artaxerxes II to take on concubines in order to hurt his wife.

Having dominated the Achaemenid court for more than sixty years, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones estimates she would have been aged around ninety by the time of her death.