Pharnaces I

Likely image of Pharnaces as Mayor of the Palace, appearing in front of Darius and performing Proskynesis, in the Central relief of the Apadana, Persepolis.

Pharnaces Ι (; Elamite: Parnaka; –497 BCE) was a son of Arsames. He was a younger brother of Hystaspes, and therefore an uncle of Achaemenid Emperor Darius I, son of Hystaspes. He was the founder of the Pharnacid dynasty that ruled over Hellespontine Phrygia.

Mayor of the Palace

According to the fortification tablets found at Persepolis, Pharnaces was the chief economic official to Darius I between 506 and 497 BCE.

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.