No doubt the story of Phanes was familiar to H. from his childhood; the name (which is not a common one) is read on a vase found in many fragments (now in the B. M.) by Petrie (Naukratis, 1886; E. E. F., p. 55, pl. 33).
Ἀραβίων βασιλέα. H. wrongly considers the Arabians as one nation; Cambyses' ally would be simply a powerful chief.
For the dangers of this desert cf. the sufferings of the retreating French in 1799 (Lanfrey, i. 297).
A unique coin found at Halicarnassus and now in the British Museum bears the inscription φαενὸς ἐμὶ σῆμα, ‘I am the sign of Phanes.’ It is at least as early as 525 B. C., and may have been struck by the mercenary captain to pay his men. But it is more usually connected with Ephesus, and the inscription is then translated ‘I am the sign of the bright one’; cf. Head, H. N. p. 571.