Babylonia = country of the Assyrians/Syrians (1)

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Strabo defines “the country of the Assyrians” as extending from Persis and Susiana to the Black Sea (Euxine), Cilicia and Phoenicia, and says it includes, besides Aturia and Babylonia, “those people who in a special sense of the term are called by the men of today Syrians, who extend as far as the Cilicians and the Phoenicians,” and equates it with the “Syrian empire” which was overthrown by the Medes.

Strabo 16.1.1-2:
The country of the Assyrians borders on Persis and Susiana. This name is given to Babylonia and to much of the country all around, which latter, in part, is also called Aturia, in which are Ninus … Nisibis, as far as the Zeugma of the Euphrates [at Commagene, 1.22], as also much of the country on the far side of the Euphrates … and those people who in a special sense of the term are called by the men of today Syrians, who extend as far as the Cilicians and the Phoenicians and the sea that is opposite the Aegyptian Sea and the Gulf of Issus. It seems that the name of the Syrians extended not only from Babylonia to the gulf of Issus, but also in ancient times from this gulf to the Euxine … When those who have written histories of the Syrian empire say that the Medes were overthrown by the Persians and the Syrians by the Medes, they mean by the Syrians no other people than those who built the royal palaces in Babylon and Ninus; and, of these Syrians, Ninus was the man who founded Ninus in Aturia, and his wife, Semiramis, was the woman who succeeded her husband and founded Babylon. These two gained the mastery of Asia … But later the empire passed over to the Medes.

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Strabo 16.1.1-2

Simo Parpola

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