Abdissares (also spelled Abdissar) was the first king of

Adiabene Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of N ...

, ruling sometime in the first half of the 2nd-century BC. Scholarship initially considered him to be the ruler of

Sophene Sophene ( hy, Ծոփք, translit=Tsopkʻ, grc, Σωφηνή, translit=Sōphēnē or hy, Չորրորդ Հայք, lit=Fourth Armenia) was a province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, located in the south-west of the kingdom, and of the Ro ...

, due to stylistic similarities between his coins and the ones in

Commagene Commagene ( grc-gre, Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which s ...

and Sophene. However, this has now been debunked. It has now been established that Abdissares' name—contrary to the Sophenian kings—was not of

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

origin, but of Semitic, meaning "servant of

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

," a name primarily used by Semitic inhabitants. The goddess Ishtar enjoyed great popularity in the heartland of ancient

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

, where Adiabene was located. Moreover, it has also been discovered that Abdissares used the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

epithet ��ΑΙΑΒΗΝΟΥ ("of Adiabene") on his coins (which are to be dated ). Adding geographical or ethnographical (or political) terms on

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

coin engravings was uncommon. The modern historian de Callataÿ has suggested that Abdissares may have added this epithet to highlight his royal rights to Adiabene in the midst of facing geopolitical challenges. According to Maciej Grabowski, Abdissares used the epithet to promulgate the establishment of the Kingdom of Adiabene. It has been surmised that Abdissares rose to kingship as a result of the disintegration of Greek

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

rule in the Near East. During this period, many local rulers took advantage of the Seleucid weakness to form their own kingdoms, such as

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

, Sophene,

Gordyene Corduene hy, Կորճայք, translit=Korchayk; ; romanized: ''Kartigini'') was an ancient historical region, located south of Lake Van, present-day eastern Turkey. Many believe that the Kardouchoi—mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis as havin ...

and Commagene. On the obverse of Abdissares' coins, a portrait of him is displayed, wearing the same

tiara A tiara (from la, tiara, from grc, τιάρα) is a jeweled head ornament. Its origins date back to ancient Greece and Rome. In the late 18th century, the tiara came into fashion in Europe as a prestigious piece of jewelry to be worn by women ...

worn by the satraps of

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

era. The same type of tiara is worn by a king portrayed on the Batas-Herir rock relief in northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, which has led to the suggestion that the rock relief is a depiction of Abdissares. The reverse of Abdissares' coins depicts an eagle. An identical headgear is portrayed on the coinage of the Sophenian king Xerxes () and

Baydad Baydad (also spelled Bagdates), was a dynast (''frataraka'') of Persis from 164 to 146 BC. Background Since the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, Persis had been ruled by local dynasts subject to the Seleucid Empire. They ...

(), the ruler of

Persis Persis ( grc-gre, , ''Persís''), better known in English as Persia ( Old Persian: 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿, ''Parsa''; fa, پارس, ''Pârs''), or Persia proper, is the Fars region, located to the southwest of modern-day Iran, now a province. T ...

. The next known person to rule Adiabene after Abdissares was an unnamed king, who was an ally of the Artaxiad Armenian king

Tigranes the Great Tigranes II, more commonly known as Tigranes the Great ( hy, Տիգրան Մեծ, ''Tigran Mets''; grc, Τιγράνης ὁ Μέγας ''Tigránes ho Mégas''; la, Tigranes Magnus) (140 – 55 BC) was King of Armenia under whom the ...

() during the Battle of Tigranocerta in 69 BC.

References

Sources

* * * Kings of Adiabene 2nd-century BC monarchs in the Middle East Year of birth unknown 200 BC deaths {{AncientNearEast-bio-stub