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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dirk D, post: 2219085, member: 71933&quot;]Here is a little bit of history of how this kingdom came to be:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]434507[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]434508[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Kingdom of Characene, Hyspaosines&nbsp; </p><p>Spasinou-Charax, AR tetradrachm (16.30 gr., 2,82 cm)&nbsp; </p><p>Obv: [ΒΑ]ΣΙΛΕΩΣ YΣΠAOΣINOY; diademed head of Hyspaosines to the right. </p><p>Rev: Heracles seated left on rock, holding club on knee; monogram to outer left, in exergue: (date) φP (= SE 190 = 123/2 BC.). </p><p>Assar fig. 16. Alram 491.2. BMC Arabia pl. 54, 1 var. </p><p><br /></p><p>Charax Spasinou means “walls of Hyspaosines” and refers to the embankments Hyspaosines had built to protect the city against the flooding of the river Tigris.</p><p><br /></p><p>In all likelihood Hyspaosines was an Arabian prince who was charged, probably in 166 BC, by the Seleucid king Antiochos IV with the building of a new port on the Persian Gulf. This city was supposed to become the center in the trade with India. After the death of Antiochos VI and the subsequent turmoil in the Seleucid realm, satraps proclaimed their independance.</p><p><br /></p><p>So did Hyspaosines, probably around 140 BC.</p><p><br /></p><p>Despite the upcoming Parthian empire, Hyspaosines seems to have been quite a succesful ruler who expanded his kingdom to encompass Kuwait and Bahrain.</p><p><br /></p><p>The tetradrachm here has on the obverse a beautiful Hellenistic portrait of a man in the prime of his life, with a powerful physiognomy full of character.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse shows Herakles seated on a pile of rocks with a club and lions’skin. Although not directly a Seleucid image, it fits very well with the founder of a dynasty. Subconsciously one is reminded of Bactria and the coins of Euthydemos, who, about a century before, succesfully withstood the forces of the Seleucids.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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