According to the fortification tablets found at Persepolis, Pharnaces was the chief economic official to Darius I between 506 and 497 BCE.[2][4] 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.[3]
Pharnaces had a son named Artabazus, who was appointed as satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia by Xerxes I 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.[2][7][4]
^"The dynasty seems to have been founded by Pharnaces, the son of Arsames, Darius' uncle" in Achaemenid History. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. 1988. p. 178. ISBN9789062584031.