noble_family parthamaspates of parthia
Osroene , also spelled Osrohene and Osrhoene ("") and sometimes known by the name of its capital city , Edessa ( modern anlurfa , Turkey ), was a historical kingdom located in Upper Mesopotamia , which enjoyed semi - autonomy to complete independence from the years of 132 BC to AD 244 , and a Roman province from AD 244  608 , from AD 318 within the Diocese of the East . The Diocese of the East (" Heoa Dioíkesis ") was a diocese of the later Roman Empire , incorporating the provinces of the western Middle East , between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia . During late Antiquity , it was one of the major commercial , agricultural , religious and intellectual areas of the Empire , and its strategic location facing the ___MASK15___ and the unruly desert tribes gave it exceptional military importance . Parthamaspates , was the Roman client king of the Parthian Empire and later of Osroene . He was the son of the Parthian emperor Osroes I . The Parthian Empire ( 247 BC  224 AD ), also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran and Iraq . Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia who , as leader of the Parni tribe , founded it in the mid - 3rd century BC when he conquered the region of Parthia in Iran ' s northeast , then a satrapy ( province ) in rebellion against the ___MASK61___ . Mithridates I of Parthia ( r . " c ". 171  138 BC ) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids . At its height , the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates , in what is now central - eastern Turkey , to eastern Iran . The empire , located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China , became a center of trade and commerce . Arsaces I (" Arshak ") was the founder of the ___MASK19___ , and after whom all 30 + monarchs of the Arsacid empire officially named themselves . A celebrated descent from antiquity ( the Bagratid " line ") begins with Arsaces . Arsaces or Ashk has also given name to the city of Ashkabad . The ___MASK61___ (" Basileía tn Seleukidn ") was a Hellenistic state ruled by the Seleucid dynasty , which existed from 312 BC to 63 BC ; it was founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the Macedonian empire vastly expanded by Alexander the Great . Seleucus received Babylonia and , from there , expanded his dominions to include much of Alexander ' s near eastern territories . At the height of its power , it included central Anatolia , Persia , the Levant , Mesopotamia , and what is now Kuwait , Afghanistan , and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan . In Ancient Rome , a province ( Latin : " provincia ", pl . " provinciae ") was the basic , and , until the ___MASK37___ ( 293 AD ), largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire ' s territorial possessions outside of Italy . The word " province " in modern English has its origins in the term used by the Romans .