Charax Χάραξ: l’ultima Alessandria nelle fonti greco-romane e cinesi

In Lower Mesopotamia, where the Eulaios River meets the Tigris at the innermost point of the Persian Gulf, Alexander the Great founded his “last” Alexandria (Pl. Nat. Hist. VI, 31, 138) in 324 BCE. The ktisis of the Macedonian ruler had the purpose of reconfirming the commercial importance that this area, coinciding with ancient Mesene, had held since antiquity: Alexandria on the Tigris would in fact have played an important role in the cultural, economic and commercial exchanges from the East to Mesopotamia connecting China with the Mediterranean World. This significance endured well beyond Alexander’s death, with the city being refounded many times under different names. Although the city was periodically destroyed by river flooding, and a series of shifts in power took place on the local political scene, Alexandria on the Tigris was refounded first as Antioch and then as Charax Spasinou Χάραξ Σπασίνου, during the Seleucid and later Parthian reigns remained a key international trade hub, and enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy: it was mentioned by Isidore of Charax as one of the stations of the Parthian trade routes in his Parthian Stations (Σταθμοί Παρθικοί), a work compiled on behalf of the Roman Empire. The toponym also appears in some ancient Chinese sources, in connection with the westward mission of Gan Ying 甘英 (97 CE), sent by General Ban Chao 班超 in search of contact with Da Qin 大秦 (the Roman Empire): in Chinese dynastic histories, the area of Charax is referred to as Tiaozhi 條枝.