CM 4 (Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period)

The Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period (also known as "King List 6") is an important historiographical document from ancient Babylonia. It mentions the length of the reigns of several kings, beginning with the accession of Philip Arridaeus, the brother of Alexander the Great, in June 323, and continuing to the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r.175-164). Together with the Uruk King List, the Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period is a useful text for those who are reconstructing the chronology of Babylonia in the late fourth to mid-second centuries.

The cuneiform tablet (BM 35603 = Sp. III 113) is in the British Museum. On this website, you will find a new transciption and translation by Bert van der Spek of the Free University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), who has recently restudied this tablet as part of his publication of the Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period. He also took the photos.^note[Thanks to Tom Boiy.]

Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period (BM35603), left edge	Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period (BM35603), obverse	Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period (BM35603), reverse	Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period (BM35603), upper edge

Description of the tablet

The tablet measures about 80 x 65 mm and is written in a late Babylonian script. The only exception is the archaic spelling of the AG sign. As Grayson has suggested, this suggests that "the original editors observed that the scribe was conscious of the antiquity of the king list tradition in Babylonia and of the fact that he was perpetuating this tradition in his own time".

Since Demetrius II (r.145-125 BCE) is mentioned on the left edge the tablet was probably inscribed in his reign.

Previous editions:

• Iraq 16 (1954) 202-212. has no Babylonian regnal years.
• The tablet contains lacunae where the regnal years of Seleucus II and Seleucus III should have been mentioned; the restoration offered below is almost certainly incorrect.