Kingdom of Adiabene

Origins

Adiabene lay between the Great and Lesser Zab rivers east of the Tigris, the heartland of ancient Assyria. After Seleucid control weakened in the 2nd century BCE, a local dynasty emerged at Arbela, becoming a client of the Parthian Empire and at times of Armenia.

Rule and society

Josephus tells how Queen Helena and her son King Izates II adopted Judaism in the 1st century CE; Helena sent food to Jerusalem during a famine and was buried in the so-called Tomb of the Kings there, and Adiabenian princes fought for the Jews against Rome in 66 to 70 CE. The population spoke Aramaic and practised a mix of Iranian, Mesopotamian, Jewish and, from early on, Christian faiths. Adiabene played a role in Parthian succession struggles.

Decline and legacy

Trajan briefly occupied Adiabene in 116 CE. Under the Sasanian Empire it became a dependent kingdom and then a province, ending in the 4th century; Arbela became a major centre of the Church of the East.