Hyspaosines
Encyclopedia
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. He was a son of King Antiochus III the Great. His original name was Mithridates; he assumed the name Antiochus after he ascended the throne....
and later the first king (before 127-124 BC) of Characene
Characene
Characene, also known as Mesene , was a kingdom within the Parthian Empire at the head of the Persian Gulf. Its capital was Charax Spasinou, "The Fort of Hyspaosines"...
or Mesene (Meshun). Hyspaosines is mainly known from coins, but also appears in texts of cuneiform script
Cuneiform script
Cuneiform script )) is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs...
(in the 'astronomical diaries'). Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
mentions that he was the son of a certain "Sagdodonacos the king of Arabs".
Hyspaosines is of Arab ancestry however his name was of Iranian origin, he might have been Iranian effecte he have founded Characene and later acknowledged the Seleucid rule, but declared independence shortly after his region was conquered or attacked by the Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
n Empire. Hyspaosines conquered parts of south Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
and of Persia. On 24 June 127 BC he is for the first time called 'king'. An inscription found in Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
indicates that he also ruled this island, which was then known as Tylos
Tylos
Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as Tylos, the centre of pearl trading, when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great. From the 6th to 3rd century BC Bahrain was included in Persian Empire by Achaemenians, an Iranian dynasty...
. The inscription also mentions his wife, queen Thalassia
Thalassia (queen)
Thalassia was the wife of Hyspaosines, king of Characene . Thalassia is a rare Greek name....
. She is also appears in the 'astronomical diaries'. After the death of her husband she tried to install her son as king of Characene. In 124 BC, Hyspaosines became ill and died shortly after on the 11th June. Coins with his name were struck until 121 BC. Coinage from his time were discovered in Kuwait, UAE and Qatif
Qatif
Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west...
in Saudi Arabia.