Pharnaces (2)

Pharnaces II (Elamite Parnaka): satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia (c.430-c.422).

Achaemenid nobleman, late sixth/early fifth century BCE. Archaeological Museum, Tehran (Iran) — Achaemenid nobleman, late sixth/early fifth century BCE.

Pharnaces II was the son of a Persian nobleman named Pharnabazus, who was satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia, i.e., the northwest of what is now Turkey. The family, the Pharnacids, belonged to the highest Persian elite: its founder was another Pharnaces I, who had been mayor of the palace of his nephew, king Darius I the Great. In the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, the Pharnacids were the ruling dynasty in Hellespontine Phrygia.

Pharnabazus was probably satrap after 455, and his son is mentioned as his successor in the year 430. We do not know when Pharnaces II had succeeded his father. The Athenian historian historian Thucydides tells us in his History of the Peloponnesian War that Pharnaces was involved in negotiations between Sparta and king Artaxerxes I Makrocheir, which came to nothing (text).

Pharnaces II is mentioned for the last time in 422. In 413, his son Pharnabazus II had already succeeded him. We do not know when Pharnaces died.