In October 539 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus took Babylon, the ancient capital of an oriental empire covering modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. In a broader sense, Babylon was the ancient world's capital of scholarship and science. The subject…
Assyrian King List: list of rulers of ancient Assyria, used as a framework for the study of Mesopotamian chronology.Incomplete lists of Assyrian kings have been discovered in each of Assyria's three capitals: Aššur, Dur-Šarukkin, and Nineveh. There are also two…
The Chronicle Concerning the Fall of Nineveh (ABC 3) is one of the historiographical texts from ancient Babylonia. It deals with Nabopolassar's capture of Nineveh, rhe capital of Assyria, one of the most shocking events in ancient history. This chronicle belongs to one large text that…
Messiah (mâšîah, "the anointed one"): Jewish religious concept, a future savior who will, in some sense, come to restore Israel. The nature of both the Messiah and the restoration wasa matter of debate, and there were several claimants.Abu Isa' al-Isfahani
The rise of Islam and the…
Ailana (Greek Αἴλανα): ancient port on the Red Sea, modern Akaba in southern Jordan. There are several related names for this town, all derived from Semitic ayil, "palm tree".Early History
…
Altertumswissenschaft: German word for the study of ancient culture and society. There is no equivalent in English.There is no real English equivalent for the German word Altertumswissenschaft, which refers to the study of ancient culture and society. It covers both…
Amel-Marduk: king of Babylonia, ruled 562-560.Relatives
Father: Nebuchadnezzar
Mother: Amytis (?)
Sister: Kasšaya (married to Neriglissar)
Main deeds
Original name: Nabû-šuma-ukîn
Falls victim to a court conspiracy; is sent to jail, where he meets former king Jehoiachin of Judah
Before Ulûlu 566: released; he accepts a new name,…
Messiah (mâšîah, "the anointed one"): Jewish religious concept, a future savior who will, in some sense, come to restore Israel. The nature of both the Messiah and the restoration was a matter of debate, and there were several claimants.An unnamed prophet (c.59 CE)
Source: Flavius Josephus,…
Apocalypticism: literary genre in which a person receives secret information about the nature of the universe.The word “apocalypticism” is derived from Greek ἀποκάλυψις, apocalypsis, meaning “un-covering”. It is a literary genre in which a person receives secret information about the nature…
Apollonius of Tyana: charismatic teacher and miracle worker (first century CE). Born in Tyana, he may have belonged to a branch of ancient philosophy called neo-Pythagoreanism. He received divine honors in the third century. Although the Athenian sophist (professional orator) Philostratus…