The Shelves · History

Babyloniaca

Βαβυλωνιακά

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely classLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

See it on the shelves ›

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of History

Conjecturedvery likely class

Berossus of Babylon

Babyloniaca

Βαβυλωνιακά

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Probable

Probably held in the Library.

In the cupboard: no source names the Alexandrian copy, but its scholars' use of it makes one very likely.

Read it today

III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (4)
  • Josephus, Against Apion 1.128-153
  • Eusebius, Chronicle
  • Vitruvius 9.6.2
  • Pliny, Natural History 7.123
Modern scholarship (2)
  • G. P. Verbrugghe and J. M. Wickersham, Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996).
  • J. Dillery, Clio's Other Sons: Berossus and Manetho (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

ΒΑΒΥΛΩΝΙΑΚΑ

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend: told story

The gilded tongue

Vitruvius tells, some two and a half centuries later, that Berossus founded a school of astrology on Cos; Pliny adds that Athens set up a statue of him with a gilded tongue for his predictions.

Told by Vitruvius and Pliny, c. 25 BCE and 77 CE, two and a half to three and a half centuries later

What the evidence supports

Berossus, a Babylonian priest, wrote a history of Babylon in Greek for the Seleucid king; Josephus and Eusebius quote it. The school and the statue are doubtful, and there is no direct evidence of an Alexandrian copy.

Sources (3)
  • Vitruvius, On Architecture 9.6.2
  • Pliny, Natural History 7.123
  • Josephus, Against Apion 1.128–153
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it in the cupboard