The capital of Characene, Alexandria, was originally founded by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great, with the intention of using the town as a leading commercial port for his eastern capital of Babylon. The region itself became the "Satrapy of the Erythraean Sea". However, the city never lived up to its expectations, and was destroyed in the mid 3rd-century BC by floods. It was not until the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes () that the city was rebuilt and renamed Antiochia. After the city was fully restored in 166/5 BC, Antiochus IV appointed Hyspaosines as governor ("eparch") of Antiochia and the "Satrapy of the Erythraean Sea".