Pharnaces (son of Arsames)

Pharnaces was a member of the Achaemenid family of Persia, a son of Arsames and younger brother of Hystaspes, and so an uncle of Darius I. According to the fortification tablets found at Persepolis, he was the chief economic official of Darius between 506 and 497 BCE, a Mayor of the Palace whose attribute was a short stick, probably of a precious metal; he likely appears on some of the Persepolis reliefs. Aristotle records that he introduced mules into Hellespontine Phrygia, in Asia Minor. His son Artabazus was made satrap of the region by Xerxes I around 477 BCE, and Artabazus's heirs, the Pharnacid dynasty, ruled it into the 4th century BCE, until Alexander the Great took it over.