Anthemusias (
Greek language: Ανθεμουσιάς) or
Charax Sidae was an ancient
Mesopotamian town, according to Pliny
[Pliny, Nat His I. V, c. 24] and
Strabo.
[Strabo, I. XVI, p. 747.] Isidore of Charax
[Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations 8][Schoff, Wilfred H. 1914. Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax: An account of the overland trade route between the Levant and India in the first century B.C. The Greek text, with a translation and commentary. Reprint by Ares Publishers Chicago. 1989.] says that it was 8
schoenus from Apamea near the
Euphrates on the road to
Seleucia, and Ptolemy places it “at the foot of a mountain called Caspius".
[Ptolemy, Geography 6.5.4]
The city was founded by one of the early and, according to Claudius Ptolemy,[Ptolemy, Geography 6.5.4] was situated next to Apameia.[Ammianus Marcellinus, 23.6.43]
- "Tiridates meanwhile, with the consent of the Parthian Empire, received the submission of Nicephorium, Anthemusias and the other cities, which having been founded by Macedonians, claim Greek names, also of the towns Halus and Artemita. There was a rivalry of joy among the inhabitants who detested Artabanus, bred as he had been among the Scythians, for his cruelty, and hoped to find in Tiridates a kindly spirit from his Roman training."
[Tacitus, Annals, Bk. VI, 41.]
This conquest by Tiridates III in 35 CE over Artabanus II was short-lived as Artabanus soon returned from Hyrcania with an army of Dahae Scythians. However, he was forced to accept a treaty with the Lucius Vitellius, the Roman Empire governor of Syria, in 37CE, in which he gave up all power.
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