MESSABATE´NE(Plin. Nat. 6.27. s. 31; Μεσσαβατική. Strab. 11. p. 524: Eth. Μεσσαβάται, Ptol. 6.4.3), a narrow district in the mid-land of Susiana (as indeed its name implies), situated according to Pliny under Mt. Cambalidus (one of the southern spurs of Mt. Zagros), to the N. of the tribe of the Cossiaei. Strabo states that it lies under Zagrus, and is either a part of Media, or, as others hold, of Elymaea (11. p. 524): in another place he calls Massabatice an eparchate of Elymaea, and adds that the best pass into Assyria lay through it (16. p. 744). Ptolemy (l. c.), who does not mention the district by its name, makes the Messabatae the inhabitants of Paraetacene, itself a subdivision of Persis, adjoining Media.
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