Berossus
c. 290 BCE · Babylon
Berossus was a Babylonian priest of Bēl (Marduk) who, in the early Hellenistic period under the Seleucid king Antiochus I, composed the Babyloniaca — a three-book history of Babylonia written in Greek to present Mesopotamian tradition to the wider Greek-speaking world. It recounted creation, the antediluvian kings and sages (including Oannes, the fish-sage), the Flood, and the succession of dynasties down to his own day. The work itself is lost and survives only through quotations in later Greek and Christian writers, making Berossus a crucial bridge between cuneiform learning and the classical tradition.
Did you know?
A Babylonian priest wrote his people's history — in Greek
Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Bel-Marduk active around 290 BCE, composed a history of Babylonia not in his native cuneiform but in Greek, the language of the new Hellenistic rulers — dedicating it to the Seleucid king Antiochus I. His original work is lost and survives today only in fragments quoted by later Greek, Roman, and early Christian writers.
How we know
Berossus, priest of Bel-Marduk at Babylon, floruit c. 290–278 BCE; wrote the Greek "Babyloniaca" dedicated to Antiochus I Soter (reigned 281–261 BCE, co-regent from c. 291); extant only in fragments via Alexander Polyhistor, Josephus, and Eusebius.
Almost exactly halfway to the pyramids
Around 290 BCE, the Babylonian priest Berossus wrote a history of Babylon in Greek for the newly Hellenistic world. He lived at almost the exact midpoint in time between the building of the Great Pyramid (c. 2560 BCE) and today — the deep past was about as distant to him as he is to us.
How we know
Berossus wrote the Babyloniaca in Greek c. 290–278 BCE (dedicated to Antiochus I); Great Pyramid of Khufu completed c. 2560 BCE. Back to pyramid 2560−290 = 2270 yrs; forward to 2026 CE = 2316 yrs; difference 46 yrs.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →
Babylon
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Babylon
The great city on the Euphrates that gave its name to Babylonia, capital under Hammurabi and again under the Neo-Babylonian kings. The pin marks the findspot of the excavated tablet.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Berossus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.