Hyrcan

• Hyrcania: an ancient Persian satrapy located in present day Iran and Turkmenistan. To the Greeks, the Caspian Sea was the "Hyrcanian Sea".

• Hyrcan: of a tiger from that region, proverbially fierce, as in Shakespeare Hamlet Act Ii scene ii "The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast" and Macbeth Act III scene iv "Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,/The arm'd rhinoceros, or th' Hyrcan tiger."

• Hyrcanus II: Jewish High Priest and King of Judea in the 1st century BC. He was defeated in a rebellion by Aristobulus II, who replaced him in both offices. A civil war ensued, then the Romans intervened, deposing Aristobulus and allowing Hyrcaus to resume the high priesthood, but not the kingship. Julius Caesar later named him ethnarch, but exile followed, then execution at teh hands of Herof I. → Haristobulus