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The founding of Nineveh and Babylon in Greek historiography1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Menko Vlaardingerbroek
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Extract

“Well, as for Nineveh, skipper, it was wiped out long ago. There's not a trace of it left, and one can't even guess where it was. Babylon's over there [pointing it out], the place with great towers and a huge wall round it — but before long it will be just as hard to find as Nineveh” (Lucianus Charon 23). Lucianus evidently did not know much about the Assyrian Empire and its capital Nineveh. The same goes for most Greek authors. Xenophon passed by Mespila, which he calls a Median city, without being aware that it was Nineveh (Xen. An. 3.4.10–12). The Greeks knew even less about the Neo-Babylonian empire, but they thought they knew quite a lot about the city of Babylon. Classical authors were especially interested in the wonders of Nineveh and Babylon and in the founding stories of both cities. Unfortunately, most texts discussing the founding of Nineveh and Babylon have been lost, but enough remains to get a picture of the development of these founding stories, which show a mixture of Babylonian and Greek elements. The founding of Nineveh is always attributed to Ninos, and the founding of Babylon sometimes to Semiramis and sometimes to Belos. When Christianity began to spread, new motifs were introduced, as historians tried to reconcile the Greek founding stories with what was said about Babylon and Nineveh in the Bible.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 66: Nineveh. Papers of the XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part One , 2004 , pp. 233 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2002 

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Footnotes

1

I want to thank Professor R. J. van der Spek, who supervises the writing of my PhD thesis on Assyria in Greek and Israelite historiography, for his comments on an earlier version of this article.

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