SAMARIA. Series with place names and related types. Pharnabazos, Achaemenid commander for the Egyptian campaign, circa 380-373 BCE. Mʿh = Obol (Silver, 9 mm, 0.75 g, 12 h). Youthful male head to left, wearing Phrygian cap bound with a taenia knotted above the forehead; to right, CAꓭ𐤫ꟼAΦ. Rev. Forepart of Pegasos to right; below, 𐡔𐡓𐡌𐡍 (ŠMRN in retrograde Aramaic); all within shallow circular incuse. CSC 39. Meshorer & Qedar 1. Hendin -. Jeselsohn 1-3. NH -. Shoshana -. Sofaer 44. Wyssmann p. 243, MQ 1. Very rare and exceptionally well preserved, struck on a broad flan and with beautiful toning. Very likely the finest known example. Light die wear, otherwise, extremely fine.



The precise connection between Pharnabazos and Samaria remains unclear. Pharnabazos was the long-serving satrap of Daskylitis, or Hellespontine Phrygia, and played an important role in the final years of the Peloponnesian War and the subsequent struggle against Sparta. His career reached one of its high points in 394 BCE, when the Persian fleet under Pharnabazos and the Athenian admiral Konon defeated the Spartans at Knidos. Later, Artaxerxes II entrusted him with the reconquest of rebellious Egypt. From about 380 BCE, Pharnabazos was active in the Cilician-Syrian region, where a substantial coinage was struck in his name, especially at Tarsos, probably to help finance and prepare the Egyptian expedition.

After several years of preparation, Pharnabazos led a large Persian expeditionary force from his base at Ake in southern Phoenicia to Egypt in 373 BCE. The campaign at first met with some success in the Nile Delta, but it ultimately failed in the face of Egyptian resistance, Persian delays, and the rising Nile flood, which forced the army to withdraw. Pharnabazos disappears from the historical record after this failure, and the date of his death is unknown. In this context, a date of circa 380-373 BCE for the Samarian coins in his name seems plausible. It is possible that they were struck in 373 BCE, when Pharnabazos assembled his troops at Ake, not far from Samaria, but this cannot be proven.