Datames, Satrap of Cilicia and Cappadocia, Stater

CILICIA, Tarsos. Datames, Satrap of Cilicia and Cappadocia. 384-362 BC. AR Stater (21.3 x 25.6mm, 9.89 gm). Struck 378-372 BC.
O: Baaltars seated right, torso facing, holding grain ear and grape-bunch in left hand, eagle-tipped sceptre in right arm; 'BLTRZ' in Aramaic to left, thymiaterion to right; all within crenellated wall
R: Ana, nude, and Datames standing facing each other, both have their right arms raised; thymiaterion and 'TRDMW' (Datames) in Aramaic between them; all within square dotted border within linear border.
- SNG Levante 83; SNG France 292; BMC Lycaonia pg. 168, 35; SNG Copenhagen 300; SNG von Aulock 5943.

Datames, the son of Kamisares and a Scythian mother, served as a member of the Persian king's bodyguard before he became satrap of Cilicia and Cappadocia upon his father's death in 384 BC. Throughout his early career, he put down a revolt in Lydia, defeated the rebel governor Thyos in Paphlagonia, and briefly occupied the city of Sinope. Because of these successes, the Persian king placed him in charge of the second war against Egypt, along with Pharnabazos and Tithraustes, satrap of Caria.
When Datames' enemies in Artaxerxes' court accused him, perhaps falsely, of intending to revolt against the Great King, he then became, in fact, the first of the Satraps to revolt. His initial success in this endeavor prompted the revolt of other satraps across the empire. Datames' success, however, was short-lived. Distrust among the satraps disintegrated their rebellion and his own son's desertion to Artaxerxes was the beginning of the end. Datames himself was assassinated by Mithradates, the son of Ariobarzanes, satrap of Phrygia, in 362 BC.