Region
Diabene
Listen to the story
Diabene has lost its first letter: the region meant is Adiabene, the land between the two rivers called Zab in the Tigris country, which took in much of old Assyria around Arbela. In the first century AD it was a kingdom under Parthian overlordship, and its royal house did something remarkable. King Izates and his mother, Queen Helena, converted to Judaism, and the dynasty later supported the Jews of Palestine with money and even troops. In 116 AD the emperor Trajan conquered the land and briefly made it a Roman province named Assyria.