The World of Berossos

Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on 'The Ancient Near East between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions', Hatfield College, Durham 7th-9th July 2010

edited by Johannes Haubold, Giovanni B. Lanfranchi, Robert Rollinger and John Steele

Book cover: The World of Berossos

Extent: 332 pages

Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Classical Studies

Series: Classica et Orientalia

Series volume number: 5

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2013)

ISBN: 9783447067287

6.65 x 9.45 inches

Price: $82.00

Out of stock

This edited volume, the first ever devoted to Berossos and his work, brings together leading scholars from a range of academic disciplines, including Classics, Assyriology, Iranology, Ancient History, Patristics, the History of Science and Renaissance Studies, to reassess the life, work and reception of one of the most fascinating and elusive figures in antiquity. The picture which emerges speaks powerfully of the enduring links between the classical world and the Ancient Near East; links which have profoundly shaped the development of European literature, culture and thought.


Berossos was a priest and historian from Babylon. A contemporary of Alexander the Great and the first Seleucid kings, he wrote a history of the world in Greek and for a Greek audience, but articulating his Babylonian perspective: he told Greek conquerors about the culture they had conquered. The Babyloniaca, as the work was probably called, was influential through the ages: in antiquity, it was quoted directly or indirectly by such diverse thinkers as Alexander Polyhistor and Eusebius. The text was lost in the middle ages but continued to be read in fragments and paraphrases. When the fragments were reassembled (and indeed forged) in the Renaissance, Berossos found himself at the heart of crucial debates about authenticity, scholarship and the shape of divine and human history. This edited volume, the first ever devoted to Berossos and his work, brings together leading scholars from a range of academic disciplines, including Classics, Assyriology, Iranology, Ancient History, Patristics, the History of Science and Renaissance Studies, to reassess the life, work and reception of one of the most fascinating and elusive figures in antiquity. The picture which emerges speaks powerfully of the enduring links between the classical world and the Ancient Near East; links which have profoundly shaped the development of European literature, culture and thought.

  • Edited by Johannes Haubold
  • Edited by Giovanni B Lanfranchi
  • Edited by Robert Rollinger
  • Edited by John Steele

"...the volume provides a perfect starting point for those daring to engage with Berossus and his work." -- Andre Heller, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2014.05.50
—