The ten most important of the vassal states were : I. The kingdom of Osroene (q.v.) in the north-east of Mesopotamia with Edessa as capital, founded about 130 B.C. by the chieftain of an Arabian tribe, the Orrhoei, which established itself there.
3 and 4. To the east of the Tigris lay two kingdoms : Gordyene (or Cordyene), the country of the Carduchians (now Bohtan), a wild mountainous district south of Armenia; and Adiabene (Hadyab) the ancient Assyria, on either side of the Zab (Lycus).
5. On the farther side of Zagrus, adjoining Adiabene on the east, was the kingdom of Atropatene in north Media, now often simply called Media (q.v.).
While the power of Armenia was at its height under Tigranes (86-69 B.C.) all these states owned his rule. After the victories of Pompey, however, the Romans claimed the suzerainty, so that, during the next decades and the expeditions of Crassus and An tony, they oscillated between Rome and Parthia, though their inclination was generally to the latter. For they were all Orientals and, consciously or unconsciously, representatives of a reaction against that Hellenism which had become the heritage of Rome. At the same time the loose organization of the Parthian empire, afforded them a greater measure of independence than they could hope to enjoy under Roman suzerainty.
6. In the south of Babylonia, in the district of Mesene (the modern Maisan), after the fall of Antiochus Sidetes (129 B.c.), an Arabian prince, Hyspaosines or Spasines (in a cuneiform in scription of 127, on a clay tablet dated after this year, he is called Aspasine) founded a kingdom which existed till the rise of the Sassanian empire. Its capital was a city (mod. Mohammerah), first founded by Alexander on an artificial hill by the junction of the Eulaeus (Karun) with the Tigris, and peopled by his veterans. The town, which was originally named Alexandria and then re built by Antiochus IV. as Antiochia, was now refortified with dikes by Spasines, and named Spasinu Charax ("the wall of Spasines"), or simply Charax (Plin. vi. 138 seq.). In the follow ing centuries it was the main mercantile centre on the Tigris estuary.
The kingdom of Mesene, also called Characene, is known to us from occasional references in various authors, especially Lucian (Macrobii, 16), as well as from numerous coins, dated by the Seleucian era, which allow us to frame a fairly complete list of the kings.' The Arabian dynasty speedily assimilated
itself to the native population ; and most of the kings bear Babylonian—in a few cases, Parthian—names. The official lan guage was Greek, till, on the destruction of Seleucia (A.D. 164), it was replaced on the coinage by Aramaic. Another Babylonian dynast must have been Hadadnadinaches (c. loo B.C.), who built in Tello the fortified palace which has been excavated by de Sarzec.
7. East of the Tigris lay the kingdom of Elymais (Elam), to which belonged Susa and its modern representative Ahwaz, farther down on the Eulaeus. The Elymaeans, who had already offered a repeated resistance to the Seleucids, were subdued by Mithradates I., as we have mentioned above ; but they remained a separate state, which often rebelled against the Arsacids (Strabo xvi. 744; cf. Plut. Pom-p. 36; Tac. Ann. vi. 5o). Of the kings who apparently belonged to a Parthian dynasty, several bearing the name Cammascires are known to us from coins dated 81 and 71 B.C. One of these is designated by Lucian (Macrobii, i6) "king of the Parthians"; while the coinage of another, Orodes, dis plays Aramaic script (Allotte de la Rev. num., 4me serie, t. vi. p. 92 sqq., 1902). The kingdom, which is seldom mentioned, survived till Ardashir I. In its neighbourhood Strabo mentioned "the minor dynasties of the Sagapenians and Silacenians" (xvi. 745). The Uxians, moreover, with the Cossaeans and other mountain tribes, maintained their independence exactly as under the later Achaemenids (Strabo xvi. 744; Puin. vi. 8. The district of Persis, the local dynasts, became inde pendent after the time of Antiochus IV. They perpetuated the Achaemenian traditions, and on their coins—which bear the Persian language in Aramaic characters, i.e., the so-called Pahlavi —appear as zealous adherents of Zoroastrianism and the Fire cult (see PERsIs). They were forced, however, to acknowledge the suzerainty of Parthia, to which they stood in the same position as the Persians of Cyrus and his forefathers to the Median em pire (cf. Strabo xv. 728, 733, 736; Lucian, Macrob. 5). In later times, before the foundation of the Sassanid dominion, Persis was disintegrated into numerous small local states. Even in Carmania we find independent kings, one of whom gave his name to a town Vologesocerta (Balashkert).