Babyloniaca (Berossus)

Last updated May 07, 2024

The Babyloniaca is a text written in the Greek language by the Babylonian priest and historian Berossus in the 3rd century BC. Although the work is now lost, it survives in substantial fragments from subsequent authors, especially in the works of the fourth-century AD Christian author and bishop Eusebius,^[1] and was known to a limited extent in learned circles as late as late antiquity.^[2] Substantial sections, including one on the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, are also preserved in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, especially in his Antiquities of the Jews and Against Apion . Until the rediscovery of cuneiform texts in the 19th century (which, for a while, drew attention away from the study of the works of Berossus), the fragments of the works of Berossus were the only genuine surviving material known from Mesopotamian civilization.^[3] During the 1970s, a German archaeological expedition discovered cuneiform texts with a kings list in Uruk similar to what is recorded in the second book of the Babyloniaca, which reinstated some confidence in the ability of the Babyloniaca to attest to genuine material from earlier periods, which, in turn, revived the scholarship addressing this work.^[4]

The Babyloniaca is structured into three books. The first recounts Babylonian geography and a variant of the cosmogony of the Enūma Eliš, as well as the transition of the existence of man prior to the divine law and after it had been revealed. The second and third books largely concern kingly genealogies and an account of the flood. An English edition of the text was first published by Burstein in 1978.^[5] A detailed study on the sources Berossus consulted for the third and final book of the Babyloniaca has also been produced^[6] as well as his conception of the creation story.^[7]

Context and survival

After the conquests of Alexander the Great, the response of the newly conquered local populations was largely that of despair. However, some of the cultural and religious elite embraced the new leadership and attempted to educate their Hellenistic overlords on Mesopotamian traditions. The first known example of such a text written in Greek was the Babyloniaca, composed in 281 BC in dedication to the ascent of Antiochus I Soter to the throne of the Seleucid Empire.^[8] This work can be thought of as emerging out of the cultural and scientific milieu fostered by the Esagila Temple.^[9] In the preface, Berossus states his intent in writing the Babyloniaca, identifying himself as both a contemporary of Alexander and a Chaldean priest of Bel.^[10] Most readers of the Babyloniaca in classical and late antiquity did not read the original Babyloniaca, but rather an abridgement of it found in a work by the first century AD writer Alexander Polyhistor. This text consisted of a history of Babylonia (relying mostly on Berossus) followed by a history of Assyria. This work is also lost, but yet another abridgement was made of the work of Polyhistor by Eusebius in the fourth century, in the first book of his Chronicon. Finally, this work of Eusebius is extant in its Armenian translation as well as from excerpts of the original Greek in the Ecloga Chronographica of the Byzantine monk George Syncellus.^[11] The Armenian translation was edited by Josef Karst in 1911^[12] and the Greek excerpts of Syncellus were edited by Felix Jacoby in 1958.^[13] Fortunately for contemporary historians, both Polyhistor and Eusebius appear to have preserved the basic organization of the texts they were working with.^[14]^[15]

Synopsis

The Babyloniaca contains three books. Berossus followed the earlier Mesopotamian view, as opposed to the perspective of the Greek historians, that history was largely driven by divine revelation and intervention as opposed to the being the unravelling of human activities over time. The Babyloniaca is organized in reflection of this: the first book, after describing why Berossus wrote the Babyloniaca, contains information about cosmology and the geography of Babylonia and a description of mankind's animalistic state prior to revelation. Then, during the reign of the king Alorus, the divine messenger Oannes speaks to humanity and communicates the basic principles of civilization. The second book is divided into three sections: the reign of ten kings over 432,000 years prior to the flood; the catastrophe of the global flood; and the reign of kings after the flood, up until the reign of Nabu-Naṣir (Nabonassar) in 787 BC.^[16] The third book continues with the more recent succession of kings, from Nabu-Naṣir down to the reign of Alexander the Great, although the extant sections of the text do not allow us to know the degree to which Berossus merely listed this succession as opposed to providing more detailed commentary. According to Polyhistor, commentary was mostly lacking from the chain of dynastic succession contained in the second book. However, it is apparent that the period of the Achaemenid Empire (Persian rule) was treated briefly and that the reigns of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar II were treated at more length.^[5]

Editions and translations

Burstein, Stanley Mayer. The Babyloniaca of Berossus, Undena Publications, 1978.^[17]
Verbrugghe, G.P. and Wickersham, J.M. Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, 1996.
De Breucker, Geert. "Berossos of Babylon (680)" in Brill's New Jacoby, Brill, 2015.

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References

Citations

↑ Talon 2001, p. 270–274.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 116n381.
↑ Beaulieu 2006, p. 117–118.
↑ Beaulieu 2006, p. 118.
1 2 Burstein 1978, p. 8.
↑ Beaulieu 2006.
↑ Beaulieu 2021.
↑ Burstein 1978, p. 4.
↑ Beaulieu 2006, p. 119.
↑ Burstein 1978, p. 5.
↑ George 2021, p. 186.
↑ Karst, J. 1911. Eusebius Werke, fünfter Band. Die Chronik aus dem Armenischen übersetzt. Leipzig.
↑ Jacoby, F. 1958. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrH), III Geschichte von Staedten und Voelkern, C Autoren über einzelne Laender, I Aegypten–Geten. Leiden.
↑ Burstein 1978, p. 6.
↑ Beaulieu 2021, p. 147–148.
↑ Burstein 1978, p. 6–8.
↑ Burstein 1978.

Sources

Beaulieu, Paul-Alian (2006). Berossus on late Babylonian History. Special Issue of Oriental Studies.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2021). "Berossus and the Creation Story". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History. 8 (1–2): 147–170. doi:10.1515/janeh-2020-0012.
Burstein, Stanley Mayer (1978). The Babyloniaca of Berossus (PDF). Undena Publications.
Decharneux, Julien (2023). Creation and Contemplation The Cosmology of the Qur'ān and Its Late Antique Background. De Gruyter.
George, Andrew (2021). "Berossus and Babylonian Cosmogony". In Kelly, Adrian; Metcalf, Christopher (eds.). Gods and Mortals in Early Greek and Near Eastern Mythology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 185–198.
Talon, Philippe (2001). "Enūma Eliš and the Transmission of Babylonian Cosmology to the West". Melammu. 2: 265–278.