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[German version] Term for the region between the upper and lower Zab, but also the adjacent northern regions (referred to in oriental sources as Hadjab). A. comprises essentially the old territory of Assyria along with  Arbela (Plin. HN. 5,66; 6,25 ff.; Amm. Marc. 23,6; SHA Sev. 9,18; Str. 11,503; 530; 16,736; 745; Ptol. 6,1,2). As a Parthian feudal state ruled by a local dynasty that professed…

(Ἀπάμεια; Apámeia). [German version] [1] City in  Bithynia This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Pergamum | Education / Culture City in  Bithynia, 1 km south-east of present-day Mudanya on the Sea of Marmara; founded by Colophon; originally Brylleion; from shortly after 330 BC Myrleia. From 433/32 BC attested as belonging to the  Delian League; at the end of the 4th cent. BC under the rule of Mithridates II of Cius; for a time in the 3rd cent. BC a member of the koinon of Athena Ilias. In 202 BC conquered by Philip V and delivered to Prusias I; newly founded as A…

[German version] (Μεσήνη, Hebr. Mēšān, Syr. Maišān, Mid. Pers. Mēšūn, Arab. Maysān). A designation for southernmost Mesopotamia, attested since Hyspaosines and used into Islamic times (corresponding approximately to the ‘Sealand’ of the older period, that is, th…

(Akkadian Nabû-kudurri-uṣur). [German version] [1] King of the Second Dynasty of Isin Most eminent king (1124-1103 BC) of the so-called Second Dynasty of Isin, who is still present in the later tradition. In addition to military successes (campaigns to Elam and against Assyria) there are religious and literary activities. It is probably in the context of the retrieval of the statue of Marduk from Elam that Marduk was placed at the head of the Babylonian pantheon. It is also about this time that the Babylonian creation poem Enūma Eliš originated. Oelsner, Joachim (Leipzig) Bibliography J.…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Commerce | Hellenistic states | India, trade with Important mercantile centre in southernmost Mesopotamia, and capital of  Characene; now convincingly located near Ǧabal Ḫayabir, between Qurna and Forat [1]. Charax Spasinou (CS) is regarded as a re-foundation of  Alexandria [4], a city established on t…

[German version] Fortified Sassanid city on the Euphrates. The name means ‘storeroom’ and refers to the use as a supply centre at the edge of the fertile Mesopotamian alluvial plain in a strategically favourable site. In the time of the Romans, A. -- at that time the second most significant town in South Mesopotamia after Ctesiphon -- is first mentioned during the battles between Julian and Shapur …

[German version] First king (625-605 BC) of the neo-Babylonian (Chaldaean) dynasty (Chaldaei), Akkadian Nabû-apla-uṣur, graecised as Ναβουπολάσσαρος ( Naboupolássaros). N., according to Berossus, formerly an Assyrian general (according to a cu…

[German version] [1] City in Parthia This item can be found on the following maps: Graeco-Bactria | Graeco-Bactria | Hellenistic states City in the mountain region of Apavortene in Parthia. According to Pompeius Trogus (Iust. 41,5,2-4), this place was distinguished by its strategic and geographical merits (Plin. HN 6,46) and was founded by the Parthian king  Arsaces [1] I. As the region is mentioned elsewhere (as Apauarktikene, Isid. by Charax, 1,13, and Partautikene/ Artakana Ptol. 6,5), but not the city, it is assumed that the settlement diminished in importance la…

[German version] [1] Caucasian landscape Caucasian landscape on the middle to lower  Cyrus (Kura) (Str. 11,4; Ptol. 5,11). The main city was Cabavla (Plin. HN 6,29 Cabalaca, Mount Kalak's name today is a reminder). The Ἀλβάνιαι πύλαι ( Albániai pýlai; Ptol. 5,9,15; 12,6) are pr…

[German version] (Νηριγλίσαρος/ Nēriglísaros; Akkad. Nergal-šarra-uṣur). King of Babylon (559-556 BC), son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar II, at whose court he held an important position. He descended from an influential aristocratic family (extensive land ownership). If he is identical with Nergal-Sharezer in Jer 39:3; 13, he also held a senior military function. According to Bero…

[German version] (Greek Ὑσπαοσίνης/ Hyspaosínēs, Σπασίνης/ Spasínēs, Πασίνης/ Pasínēs; Latin Spaosines, cuneiform Aspasine, name of Iranian origin). Son of Sagdo(do)nacus, founder of a dynasty of independent local rulers in the  Characene, according to Pliny (HN 6,139) king ( rex) of the Arabs, who were indeed mentioned in the cuneiform texts of his time but not in connection with him. In c. 165 BC appointed by Antiochus IV as administrator of Eparchia on the Red Sea, he succeeded, in conjunction with the passing of control of southern Mesopotamia from t…

I. General [German version] A. Name The name M., i.e. ‘[land] between the rivers [ Euphrates [2] and Tigris]’, first appears in Arrian (Arr. Anab. 3,7,3; 7,7,3) as a designation for the area of what is now eastern Syria and northern Iraq, probably corresponding to the Aramaic beyn nahrīn and the Akkadian māt birīt nārim (both ‘between the rivers’). However, this expression designated only the region between the bend of the Euphrates and Baliḫ/Ḫabur [1; 2]. Later, M. could also refer t…

[German version] In its lexical meaning, the term B., as used by Greek and Latin writers, (also expanded by γῆ, gê, μοῖρα, moîra or rather χώρα, chṓra) refers to the territory of the city of  Babylon (its wider surroundings); however, its use in that sense is frequently not unambiguous. In d…

[German version] (Ἀμπη; Ámpē). According to Hdt. 6,20, a settlement ( polis) on the Lower Tigris in which Darius I is supposed to have settled captured Milesians in 494 BC. Regarded since the 19th cent. as a mistaken transcription of Agine/Aginis (equated with the Babylonian Dūr-Jakīn, which can be located near the lower reaches of the Euphrates using Assyrian inscriptions [1]). Aginis is identified with Aple (Plin. HN 6,134), whilst the …

(Ὦπις/ Ôpis, Οὖπις/ Oûpis). [German version] [1] Epithet of Artemis In Ephesus an epithet of Artemis, derived in antiquity from her companion O. [2] (Callim. H. 3,204 with scholia; Antimachus fr. 99 Matthews [1]; Macrob. Sat. 5,22; different in Cic. Nat. D. 3,58). Ambühl, Annemarie (Groningen) [German version] [2] Hyperborean Hyperborean woman (Hyperborei), whose tomb on Delos was worshipped in cult (Hdt. 4,35). She is mostly mentioned along with Hecaerge [4] (Paus. 1,43,4; 5,7,8; Pl. Ax. 371a); in Callim. H. 4,292 Loxo is also added. O. was cl…

Name of two Babylonian kings. [German version] [1] M. I. Kassite king Antepenultimate king of the dynasty of the Kassites (1171-1159 BC; Cossaei). Oelsner, Joachim (Leipzig) [German version] [2] M. II. King of the Chaldaeans (721-710 BC and 703) from the Chaldaean tribe ( Chaldaei) of the Bīt Jakīn; the M…

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(Ἀρδέρικκα; Ardérikka). [German version] [1] Village on the Euphrates According to Hdt. 1,185, ‘Assyrian’ κώμη ( kṓmē) on the Euphrates above Babylon, otherwise not mentioned. The river was supposedly artificially redirected to form three rings around the city. Oelsner, Joachim (Leipzig) [German version] [2] Estate belonging to Darius I Ac…

[German version] (Ὠάννης/ Ōánnēs, probably the short form of Sumerian u4-an-na-a-da-pà). Babylonian mythical creature (half human, half fish; Monsters), who is said to have imparted the foundations of civilisation to mankind. O. is part of the seven antediluvian wise men (Sumerian abgal, Akkadian apkallu). The written tradition in Berosus (FGrH 3C1, 680, F 1) is augmented by references to him in cuneiform, mainly on a tablet from Hellenic Uruk, where he is named as the first of the wise men [1. 44-52]. On account of the spelling u…

[German version] Term derived from the city of Charax ( Charax Spasinou), and describing the territory at the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris and on the northern margin of the Persian Gulf (Plin. HN 6,136, on  Susiana; Ptol. Geogr. 6,3,3, on  Elymaeis); as a geographical term roughly corresponding to  Mesene (original form in oriental sources: Maišan), although the exact relationship between the two terms is unknown. Once power had passed from the Seleucids to the Parthians (141 BC), the local rulers were able to establish and assert thems…