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Mesopotamia In Classical Literature
Before the decipherment of cuneiform text, knowledge of the history of the ancient Mesopotamia was mostly dependent upon classical authorities and the Hebrew Bible. These testimonies were scanty and confused for times predating the 7th century BCE. Had the native history of Berossus survived, this may not have been the case; all that is known of the Chaldaean historian's work, however, is derived from quotations in Josephus, Ptolemy, Eusebius, Jerome and George Syncellus. Classical Greece The account of Babylon given by Herodotus is not that of an eye-witness and not very extensive. In his ''Histories'' he mentions that he will devote a whole section to the history of Assyria, but this promise was unfulfilled, or perhaps the book has been lost. Herodotus' opinions are disputed by Ctesias, who, however, has mistaken mythology for history, and Greek romance owed to him its Ninus and Semiramis, its Ninyas and Sardanapalus. Xenophon's account in the Anabasis gives information on th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decipherment
In philology, decipherment is the discovery of the meaning of texts written in ancient or obscure languages or scripts. Decipherment in cryptography refers to decryption. The term is used sardonically in everyday language to describe attempts to read poor handwriting. In genetics, decipherment is the successful attempt to understand DNA, which is viewed metaphorically as a text containing word-like units.Snustad, D. Peter, et al. (2016). ''Principles of Genetics''. Wiley, p.302 Throughout science the term decipherment is synonymous with the understanding of biological and chemical phenomena. Ancient languages In a few cases, a multilingual artifact has been necessary to facilitate decipherment, the Rosetta Stone being the classic example. Statistical techniques provide another pathway to decipherment, as does the analysis of modern languages derived from ancient languages in which undeciphered texts are written. Archaeological and historical information is helpful in verifying ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest empire in history, spanning a total of from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the formal establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its imposition of a successful model of centralized, bureaucratic administration; its multicultural policy; building complex infrastructure, such as road systems and an organized postal system; the use of official languages acros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mushezib-Marduk
Mushezib-Marduk (reigned 693 BC-689 BC), Chaldean prince chosen as King of Babylon after Nergal-ushezib. He led the Babylonian populace in revolt against Assyria and King Sennacherib in 689 BC, with the support of Elam and King Humban-nimena (who was attacked by the Babylonians and the Assyrians only years before), at the Battle of Halule. It is not clear who won this battle, since both sides claimed victory, and all rulers remained on their thrones, but as the Assyrians subsequently retreated, they are likely to have suffered the greatest losses.Jean-Jacques Glassner, ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'', Atlanta, 2004, p. 199. Mushezib-Marduk lost his ally when the Elamite king Humban-nimena suffered a stroke later that same year, an opportunity King Sennacherib quickly seized by attacking Babylon, and eventually capturing it after a nine-month siege. To avenge the death of his son, whom the Babylonians had effectively killed when they handed him over to the Elamites in 694 BC, Sennacher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nergal-ushezib
Nergal-ushezib, originally Shuzub, was a Babylonian nobleman who was installed as King of Babylon by the Elamites in 694 BC, after their capture of Babylon and deposition and murder of the previous king Ashur-nadin-shumi, son of King Sennacherib of Assyria. Nergal-ushezib reigned as King for little more than a year. Sennacherib soon made war on Babylon to recover the city and avenge his son's death. Nergal-ushezib was defeated and captured by the Assyrians in battle near Nippur in September 693 BC. Nergal-ushezib's subsequent fate is unknown. He was succeeded by the Chaldean prince Mushezib-Marduk Mushezib-Marduk (reigned 693 BC-689 BC), Chaldean prince chosen as King of Babylon after Nergal-ushezib. He led the Babylonian populace in revolt against Assyria and King Sennacherib in 689 BC, with the support of Elam and King Humban-nimena (wh ..., who continued the resistance against Assyria. References 693 BC deaths 7th-century BC Babylonian kings Year of birth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashur-nadin-shumi
Ashur-nadin-shumi ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning " Ashur gives a name")' was a son of the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib and was appointed by him as the king of Babylon, ruling southern Mesopotamia from 700 BC to his capture and execution by the Elamites in 694 BC. Ashur-nadin-shumi was probably Sennacherib's firstborn son and his first crown prince and thus the designated successor to the Assyrian throne. Biography Babylonia had been conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire by Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC) less than thirty years before Ashur-nadin-shumi became its king. During these thirty years, Babylonia had repeatedly attempted to once more become an independent kingdom. Babylonian revolts became an especially frequent nuisance during the reign of Sennacherib, who had to defeat numerous southern revolts throughout his reign.' After defeating uprisings in 700 BC, Sennacherib named his own son, Ashur-nadin-shumi, as the new king of Babylon. Ashur-nadin-shumi was also t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bel-ibni
Bel-ibni was a Babylonian nobleman who served as King of Babylon for several years as the nominee of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. Sennacherib, believing that direct Assyrian rule was too costly, appointed Bel-ibni, a young Babylonian nobleman raised at the Assyrian court, King of Babylon in 703 BC. The experiment with a native puppet king was hardly more successful than direct Assyrian control. Soon Bel-ibni was conspiring with the Chaldeans and Elamites against the Assyrians. After defeating the opposing coalition in 700 BC, Sennacherib deposed Bel-ibni and carried him off to Assyrian exile, replacing him with Sennacherib's own son, Ashur-nadin-shumi Ashur-nadin-shumi ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning " Ashur gives a name")' was a son of the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib and was appointed by him as the king of Babylon, ruling southern Mesopotamia from 700 BC to his capture and execution by t ....Jean-Jacques Glassner, ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'', Atlanta, 2004, p. 197. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sargon II
Sargon II ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is generally believed to have become king after overthrowing Shalmaneser V (727–722), probably his brother. He is typically considered the founder of a new dynastic line, the Sargonid dynasty. Modelling his reign on the legends of the ancient rulers Sargon of Akkad, from whom Sargon II likely took his regnal name, and Gilgamesh, Sargon aspired to conquer the known world, initiate a golden age and a new world order, and be remembered and revered by future generations. Over the course of his seventeen-year reign, Sargon substantially expanded Assyrian territory and enacted important political and military reforms. An accomplished warrior-king and military strategist, Sargon personally led his troops into battle. By the end of his reign, all of h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marduk-apal-iddina II
Marduk-apla-iddina II ( Akkadian: ; in the Bible Merodach-Baladan, also called Marduk-Baladan, Baladan and Berodach-Baladan, lit. ''Marduk has given me an heir'') was a Chaldean leader from the Bit-Yakin tribe, originally established in the territory that once made the Sealand in southern Babylonia. He seized the Babylonian throne in 722 BC from Assyrian control and reigned from 722 BC to 710 BC, and from 703 BC to 702 BC. His reign is defined by some historians as an illegitimate Third Dynasty of the Sealand, inside of the IXth Dynasty of Babylon, or Assyrian Dynasty. He was known as one of the kings who maintained Babylonian independence in the face of Assyrian military supremacy for more than a decade. Sargon of Assyria repressed the allies of Marduk-apla-iddina II in Elam, Aram and Israel and eventually drove (ca. 710 BC) him from Babylon. After the death of Sargon, Marduk-apla-iddina II briefly recaptured the throne from a native Babylonian nobleman. He reigned nine mont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shalmaneser V
Shalmaneser V (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Salmānu is foremost"; Biblical Hebrew: ) was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Tiglath-Pileser III in 727 BC to his deposition and death in 722 BC. Though Shalmaneser V's brief reign is poorly known from contemporary sources, he remains known for the conquest of Samaria (ancient city), Samaria and the fall of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel, though the conclusion of that campaign is sometimes attributed to his successor, Sargon II, instead. Shalmaneser V is known to have campaigned extensively in the lands west of the Assyrian heartland, warring not only against the Israelites, but also against the Phoenicia, Phoenician city-states and against kingdoms in Anatolia. Though he successfully annexed some lands to the Assyrian Empire, his campaigns resulted in long and drawn-out sieges lasting several years, some being unresolved at the end of his reign. The circumstances of his deposi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiglath-Pileser III
Tiglath-Pileser III ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, Tiglath-Pileser ended a period of Assyrian stagnation, introduced numerous political and military reforms and more than doubled the lands under Assyrian control. Because of the massive expansion and centralization of Assyrian territory and establishment of a standing army, some researchers consider Tiglath-Pileser's reign to mark the true transition of Assyria into an empire. The reforms and methods of control introduced under Tiglath-Pileser laid the groundwork for policies enacted not only by later Assyrian kings but also by later empires for millennia after his death. The circumstances of Tiglath-Pileser's rise to the throne are not clear. Because ancient Assyrian sources give conflicting accounts concerning Tiglath-Pileser's lineage and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nabu-mukin-zeri
Nabû-mukin-zēri, inscribed mdAG-DU-NUMUN, also known as Mukin-zēri,''Kinglist A'', BM 33332, iv 7. was the king of Babylon 731–729 BC. The Ptolemaic Canon gives his name as Χινζηρος. His reign was brought to its eventual end by the capture of the stronghold of Šapia by the forces of the Assyrian king Tukultī-apil-Ešarra III (745–727 BC). The chief of the Chaldean Amukanu tribe in southern Babylonia, he took advantage of the instability which attended the revolt against Nabû-nādin-zēri and deposed its leader, Nabû-šuma-ukîn II. History The fortuitous discovery in 1952 of a cache of diplomatic correspondence in the chancery offices of the Northwest Palace in a room designated as ZT 4 at Kalhu, modern Nimrud, by archaeologists led by Max Mallowan, has shed much light on events of the Mukin-zēri rebellion. Of the more than three hundred tablets uncovered, a group of more than twenty letters and fragments concerned the events in Babylonia which led to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nabu-nadin-zeri
Nabû-nādin-zēri, inscribed m d''Na''.html" ;"title="sup>d''Na''">sup>d''Na'''bû-nādìn-zēri'' in the ''King List A'',''Kinglist A'', BM 33332 iv. the only place his full name is given, and ''Na-di-nu'' or ''Na-din'' in the ''Chronicle on the Reigns from Nabû-Nasir to Šamaš-šuma-ukin'' known as ''Chronicle 1'',Chronicle 1, I 13–15. was the king of Babylon (733-732 BC), son and successor of Nabû-Nasir (747-734 BC). The Ptolemaic Canon gives his name as Νάδιος or Νάβιος, similar to the Chronicle version of his name. Biography His accession followed shortly after the first incursions of the newly emboldened Neo-Assyrian state. He was one of the kings who were contemporary with Tukultī-apil-Ešarra III, the Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
