MESENE

also called Characene, Persian Meshan ancient Parthian vassal state located in the south of Babylonia (modern southern Iraq). After the fall of the Seleucid king Antiochus VII Sidetes in 129 BC, a local prince, Hyspaosines (also called Aspasine, or Spasines), founded the Mesene kingdom, which survived until the rise of the Sasanian empire. Hyspaosines refortified a town originally founded by Alexander the Great near the junction of the Eulaeus (Karun) and Tigris rivers and called it Spasinou Charax (Fort of Spasines); in the following centuries it was the main mercantile centre on the Tigris estuary. The chief source of information about Mesene is the series of coins minted by the dynasty; they are dated according to the Seleucid era and make it possible to compile a fairly complete list of local kings, from Hyspaosines (reigned 127c. 121 BC) to Thionesius IV (reigned c. AD 111c. 112).