the most southern part of Susiana, a province of Persia, lying on the Persian gulph, between the Tigris and the Eulaeus. It was so named from the city of Chorax, called first Alexandria, from its founder Alexander the Great; afterwards Antiochia, from Antiochus V. king of Syria, who repaired and beautified it; and lastly, Chorax Spafinæ, or Pafine, that is the Mole of the Spafines, an Arabian king of that name having secured it against the overflowing of the Tigris, by a high bank or mole, extending three miles, which served as a fence to all that country. Dionysius Periegetes, and Ifidorus, author of the Parthicae Mansones, were both natives of this city. The small district of Characene was seized by Pafines, the son of Sogdonaeus, king of the neighbouring Arabs, during the troubles of Syria, and erected into a kingdom. Lucian calls him Hypaphanes, and adds, that he ruled over the Characeni and the neighbouring people: he died in the 85th year of his age. The other kings of this country we find mentioned by the ancients are, Teresus, who died in the 92d year of his age, and after him Artabazus the seventh, as Lucian informs us, who was driven from the throne by his own subjects, but restored by the Parthians. And this is all we find in the ancients relating to the kings of Characene.