page_title: Pharnabazus II
section_title: Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Pharnabazus II / Campaign against Egypt (373 BC) / Expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: CILICIA, Tarsos. Pharnabazos. Persian military commander, 380-374/3 BC. AR Stater (23mm, 10.72 g, 10h). Struck circa 380-379 BC. Baal of Tarsos seated left, his torso facing, holding lotus-tipped scepter in extended right hand, left hand holding chlamys at his waist; monogram to left, B’LTRZ (in Aramaic) to right / Bearded head left, wearing crested Attic helmet, drapery around neck; PRNBZW (in Aramaic) to left, KLK (in Aramaic) to right. Casabonne Series 4; Moysey Issue 2, 42b = Mildenberg, Münzwesen 90 = L. Mildenberg, “Notes on the Coin Issues of Mazday” in INJ 11 (1990-1991), 1 (this coin); SNG BN –; SNG Levante –; SNG von Aulock 5930 (same obv. die); Brindley 234. Choice EF, even dark gray tone with deep iridescence around the devices. Very rare with this monogram, Moysey records only two examples, three in CoinArchives.
context_page_description: Pharnabazus II was a Persian soldier and statesman, and Satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia. He was the son of Pharnaces II of Phrygia and grandson of Pharnabazus I, and great-grandson of Artabazus I. He and his male ancestors, forming the Pharnacid dynasty, had governed the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia from its headquarters at Dascylium since 478 BC. He married Apama, daughter of Artaxerxes II of Persia, and their son Artabazus was likewise a satrap of Phrygia. His grand-daughter Barsine married Alexander the Great.
  According to research by Theodor Nöldeke, he was descended from Otanes, one of the associates of Darius in the murder of Smerdis.
context_section_description: The force landed in Egypt with the Athenian general Iphicrates near Mendes in 373 BC. The expedition force was too slow, giving time to the Egyptians to strengthen defenses. Pharnabazus and Iphicrates appeared before Pelusium, but retired without attacking it, Nectanebo I, king of Egypt, having added to its former defences by laying the neighboring lands under water, and blocking up the navigable channels of the Nile by embankments. (Diodorus Siculus xv. 42; Cornelius Nepos, Iphicrates c. 5.) Fortifications on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile ordered by Nectanebo forced the enemy fleet to seek another way to sail up the Nile. Eventually the fleet managed to find its way up the less-defended Mendesian branch. At this point, the mutual distrust that had arisen between Iphicrates and Pharnabazus prevented the enemy from reaching Memphis. Then the annual Nile flood and the Egyptian defenders' resolve to defend their territory turned what had initially appeared as certain defeat for Nectanebo I and his troops into a complete victory.
  After several weeks the Persians, and their Greek mercenaries under Iphicrates, had to reembark. The expedition against Egypt had failed. It was the end of the career of Pharnabazus, who was now over 70 years old. Pharnabazus was replaced by Datames to lead a second expedition to Egypt, but he failed and then started the "Satraps' Revolt" against the Great King.
  From 368 BCE many western satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire started to rebel against Artaxerxes II, in the Great Satraps' Revolt, so Nectanebo provided financial support to the rebelling satraps and re-established ties with both Sparta and Athens.
caption: Coinage of Pharnabazus II, Tarsos, Cilicia.[33][34]
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