Arbayistan was a Sassanid Persian satrapy in Late Antiquity, which reached across Upper Mesopotamia toward the Khabur river and north to the lower districts of Armenia.
Shapur I's inscription at Naqsh-e-Rostam describes the satrapy as "extending to the Caucasus mountains and the Gate of Albania (also known as Gate of the Alans)", but for the most part it was located south of the lower course of the rivers Kura and the Aras (Araxes), bordered on the south by Atropatene, and had the Caspian Sea on its east.
It is said that on his death bed, Cyrus urges Spitaces, to obey and respect him mother Spitamas, and also appoints his son Cambyses II of Persia to be the legitimate king of the empire, and his younger brother Bardiya to be the governor of Parthia, Choramnia, Bactria, and Carmania.
The species epithet is derived from Hyrcania, a satrapy which previously existed within present-day Iran.
Datames, the satrap of Cappadocia and a talented military commander, had inherited his satrapy from his father Camissares after 384 BC and he was a respected military commander but later problems with the court led him to revolt in 372 BC.