Hyspaosines

Hyspaosine's coin

Hyspaosines (also Aspasine or Spasines ; * 209 BC ; † June 11, 124 BC ) was the first ruler of the Charakene , a vassal state in the Parthian Empire that existed for around 300 years.

For a long time only little was known about the person of Hyspaosines apart from the coin finds that ancient authors reported. However, the ruler is mentioned several times in the so-called astronomical diaries , which are cuneiform records from Babylon that contain exact dates and the most important events of each year. These records have only recently been fully explored by research.
Otherwise the ruler is also attested in Lukian of Samosata and Pliny the Elder ( Natural History , 6:31).

The time before the elevation to king

Pliny describes Hyspaosines as an Arab and son of a certain Sagdodonacos , of whom nothing further is known. Hyspaosines is the Greek form of the Iranian name Vispa-canah, which means taking pleasure in everything . Hyspaosines seems to have come from the Seleucid king Antiochus IV in 166/165 BC. To have been installed as Eparch in the Kingdom of Charakene, then called the Satrapy of the Erythrean Sea (so Iuba II. , Which Pliny the Elder rejects as incorrect). The capital became Charax Spasinu , which at that time was renamed Antioch (on the Tigris) from Alexandria because it had to be rebuilt after a flood disaster by Antiochus IV.

From the following years we learn nothing more about the person of the Hyspaosines. In the years 141 and 139 BC Some researchers date copper coins with his name that were probably minted in Antioch on the Tigris; however, the dating is not certain. His political status cannot be read from these coins; he was probably still eparch. On some of these coins a second, older man appears staggered, who could be his father Sagdodonacos, although this is not documented in writing. The embossing shows an anchor, Athene and Artemis on the reverse .

Hyspaosines as king

From the years 139–125 BC No further coins for Hyspaosines are recorded. During this period the Seleucid Empire had to struggle with great domestic political difficulties. As early as 162 BC Had Chr. To Timarchos , the Seleucid satrap of Media , renounced the kingdom, declared himself king and minted its own coins. A little later, the Parthians expanded under Mithridates I. 148/147 BC. BC he conquered the media. 141 BC Chr. Is Seleucia on the Tigris occupied. The Seleucid Empire was in a phase of rapid dissolution, with the Parthians presumably not yet gaining full control of all newly won provinces. So the Elymais seems to have declared itself independently.

In this context one hears again in the year 138 BC By Hyspaosines, who led a campaign and, according to the astronomical texts from Baylon, freed the Charakene from the Elymean rule:

“The fear of the Elamite enemy was strong in the land ... this [Aspasi] ne drove out the Elamite enemy, and he brought the cities [and canals] of the lower seas to his side and made them subject to his command ... his Disobeying orders, he conquered ... he took prisoners and stole loot ... "

The exact circumstances of these campaigns are unclear. Above all, one wonders whether Hyspaosines fought for the Seleucids, the Parthians or for themselves. From November 133 BC He was obviously fighting to build his own empire. The Babylonian texts report:

"The army of Aspasine, the enemy from the area of ​​Mesene (?), A friend of the enemy from Elam, came and attacked the port of the ships on the Tigris"

On June 24, 127 BC He is referred to for the first time as "King", which means that the character was also formally independent. Shortly before this point in time, he seems to have conquered Babylon, but the city was only in his hands for a short time and was soon ruled again by the Parthians. The conquest of Babylon took place shortly after 129/128 BC. BC, because that year a certain Himeros was governor of the Parthians in Babylon. This was considered particularly cruel, so that the local population did not oppose the Hyspaosines. Hyspaosines apparently also briefly occupied the Parthian capital Seleukia on the Tigris . There are coins with his name that were minted there. In 126 BC BC Babylon and probably all of Babylonia is again in Parthian hands, because in a text for this year sacrifices in favor of the Parthian ruler in Babylon are recorded.

In the following time there was still fighting against the Parthians. The son of Hyspaosines, Timarchus, who died in November 125 BC, was particularly involved in this. Is mentioned. A month later, however, he was defeated and brought before his father in handcuffs.

We know the name of the wife of Hyspaosines from a Greek inscription on a stele found in Bahrain . It was a certain Thalassia . It can be assumed that he also ruled Bahrain. The text of the stele reads:

"In the name of King Hyspaosines and Queen Thalassia, Kephisodorus, Strategus of Tylos (Bahrain) and the islands, (dedicated) the temple to the Dioscuri , the saviors in ex-voto."

According to the astronomical diaries, Hyspaosines died on June 11, 124 BC. From an illness. According to Lukian of Samosata (Macrobii, 15) he reached the age of 85 years, according to which his date of birth is about 209 BC. Can be calculated. Coins with his name were still in use until 122/121 BC. BC, which long gave rise to the assumption that he had lived until then. These coins may have been minted at the instigation of Thalassia, the ruler's widow. According to cuneiform texts, she tried to establish her underage son as his successor. From the year 122/121 BC Finally, the first coins of Mithridates II come from Parthia, who minted coins of Hyspaosines. The character seems to have come under Parthian rule in the meantime. However, the exact circumstances of this takeover remain in the dark.

literature

• DT Potts: The Archeology of Elam. Formation and Transformation of an ancient Iranian State . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1999, ISBN 0-521-56358-5 , ( Cambridge world archeology ), pp. 390-391.
• Monika Schuol : The characters. A Mesopotamian kingdom in the Hellenistic-Parthian period . Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07709-X , ( Oriens et Occidens 1), (Simultaneously: Kiel, Univ., Diss., 1998), pp. 218-220, 291-300.

Web links

• The inscription from Bahrain doi : 10.1034 / j.1600-0471.2002.130204.x
• Coins of the Hyspaosines

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pliny, nat. VI 139
2. ↑ Schuol, Charakene , p. 292
3. ↑ after: Schuol, Charakene , p. 29
4. ↑ after: Schuol, Charakene , p. 31

predecessor	Office	successor
-	King of the Charakene approx. 127–124 BC Chr.	Apodacus