Pharasmanes
(Φαραδμάνης).
1. A king of the Scythian tribe of the Chorasmians, who presented himself to Alexander the Great at Zariaspa, B. C. 328, with friendly offers, which were favourably received, and an alliance concluded between them. He promised the Macedonian king his assistance in conquering the tribes between the Caspian and the Euxine seas, when Alexander should have leisure for this expedition. (Arr. Anab. 4.15.)
2. A son of Phrataphernes, the satrap of Parthia and Hyrcania. (Ibid. 6.27.)
3. King of Iberia, contemporary with the emperor Tiberius. He assisted his brother Mithridates to establish himself on the throne of Armenia, A. D. 35 [Arsacidae, Vol. I. p. 362]; and when the Parthian prince Orodes attempted to dispossess him of his newly-acquired kingdom, Pharasmanes assembled a large army, with which he totally defeated the Parthians in a pitched battle (Tac. Ann. 6.32-35). At a later period (A. D. 53) he instigated his son Rhadamistus, whose ambitious and aspiring character began to give him umbrage, to make war upon his uncle Mithridates, and supported him in his enterprize; but when Rhadamistus was in his turn expelled by the Parthians, after a short reign (A. D. 55), and took refuge again in his father's dominions, the old king, in order to curry favour with the Romans, who had expressed their displeasure at the proceedings of Rhadamistus, put his son to death. (Id. ib. 12.42-48, 13.6, 37.) [E.H.B]