Page 80 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

THE LEGEND OF ABGAR AND ADDAI 67

But when we examine the identity of the Abgar of the narrative of Eusebius,
we find that here too there has been confusion of names. Eusebius accepts the
traditional view that the royal protagonist of Christianity at Edessa was Abgar
Ukkama, the Black, who reigned in the lifetime of Jesus. The facts suggest
otherwise. Again we must look to the East for the solution of the problem.
The romantic story of the royal house of Adiabene was celebrated at
Jerusalem and left a deep impression on the contemporaries of Jesus. Jose-
phus relates that the king of Adiabene, who had married his sister Helena,
sent his favourite son Ezad to stay with Abennerigos, king of Spasinou
Charax at the head of the Persian Gulf.1 The young prince won the affection
of his host, who gave him in marriage his daughter Samachos2 and also
appointed him governor of one of his provinces. On the death of his father,
Ezad returned home to ascend the throne of Adiabene; we are told that he
then conveyed some of his relatives as hostages to Emperor Claudius.3
While Ezad was at Spasinou Charax, Josephus continues, a Jewish mer-
chant named Ananias converted to Judaism some women in the king's
harem and then also Ezad himself. He accompanied Ezad when the latter
returned to take over the government of Adiabene; they found that the
queen mother, Helena, had also, apparently independently, adopted Judaism.
Ezad, despite some dissuasion on the part of Helena and Ananias, allowed
himself to be circumcised. He prospered, and the king of Parthia accorded
him rule over Nisibis, and certain privileges usually reserved for Parthian
rulers. The nobles of Adiabene were hostile to the Judaism of Ezad, but in
vain. An Arab king Abias, whom they encouraged to oppose Ezad was
defeated; the king of Parthia, Walagash (Vologases I), proposed to attack
Ezad, but was diverted by an invasion from the East. Shortly afterwards,
Ezad died. Both he and his mother Helena, who survived only a little longer,
were buried at Jerusalem. There their piety and generosity had won great
renown.
Of the historicity of the events related by Josephus there need be no
doubt. Ezad ascended the throne of Adiabene in A.D. 36. He was therefore
a contemporary of Abgar Ukkama of Edessa.
There are remarkable parallels between the history of Spasinou Charax
and that of Edessa. Spasinou Charax was built by Alexander, but, like
Edessa, refounded by Antiochus IV under the name of Antioch. Shortly
before 129 B.C., it became the seat of an Arab dynasty, of which the first
ruler was Hyspaosines or Spasines, exactly at the time of the emergence to
power of the Aryu dynasty at Edessa. At Spasinou Charax, as at Edessa,

1 This king is probably to be identified with 2 The name appears in various forms:
the Abinergaos of a coin of Spasinou Charax, Zau6xcos, aanccxos, oraunocxcb, Sunocxco, etc.
dated A.D. 10, and Adin[e]rglos of a coin of * This should be Tiberius; see p. 69
A.D. 22. His Semitic name was evidently below.
'Abe[d]nergal.

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