Pharnaces Ι (;

Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Scythic, Median, Amardian, Anshanian and Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was recorded in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite i ...

: ''Parnaka''; –497 BCE) was a son of

Arsames Arsames ( Aršāma, modern Persian:،آرسام، آرشام‎ Arshām, Greek: ) was the son of Ariaramnes and the grandfather of Darius I. He was traditionally claimed to have briefly been king of Persia during the Achaemenid dynasty, an ...

. He was a younger brother of Hystaspes, and therefore an uncle of

Achaemenid Emperor The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

Darius I Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

, son of Hystaspes. He was the founder of the

Pharnacid dynasty The Pharnacid dynasty was a Persian Empire, Persian dynasty that ruled the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia under the Achaemenid Dynasty from the 5th until the 4th century BCE. It was founded by Artabazos I of Phrygia, Artabazus, son of satrap P ...

that ruled over

Hellespontine Phrygia Hellespontine Phrygia () or Lesser Phrygia () was a Persian satrapy (province) in northwestern Anatolia, directly southeast of the Hellespont. Its capital was Dascylium, and for most of its existence it was ruled by the hereditary Persian Pharna ...

Mayor of the Palace

According to the fortification tablets found at

Persepolis Persepolis (; ; ) was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (). It is situated in the plains of Marvdasht, encircled by the southern Zagros mountains, Fars province of Iran. It is one of the key Iranian cultural heritage sites and ...

, Pharnaces was the chief economic official to Darius I between 506 and 497 BCE. He was a Mayor of the Palace, his statutory attribute being a short stick, probably made of a precious metal. He likely appears on some of the reliefs in Persepolis.

Hellespontine Phrygia

Pharnaces became involved at some point with

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(modern northwest Turkey), since Aristotle of Stagira mentions that Pharnaces introduced mules in the region. Pharnaces had a son named Artabazus, who was appointed as satrap of

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was ...

circa 477 BCE. Artabazus and his heirs, known as the "Pharnacid dynasty" after Pharnaces, would rule the region into the 4th century BCE and until its take-over by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

."The dynasty seems to have been founded by Pharnaces, the son of Arsames, Darius' uncle" in

References

{{reflist Hellespontine Phrygia Pharnacid dynasty 6th-century BC Iranian people Officials of Darius the Great