most southern part of Susiana, a province of Persia, lying on the Persian gulf, between the Tigris and the Euileus. 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 Spafnae, or Pafnae, that is, the Mole of the Spafnes, 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 Isidorus, author of the Parthicae Maniones, were both natives of this city. The small district of Characene was seized by Pafnes, the son of Sogdonacus, king of the neighbouring Arabs, during the troubles of Syria, and erected into a kingdom. Lucian calls him Hypspafnes, 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, Tcaeus, who died in the 92nd 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.