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(Νεοκαισάρεια/ Neokaisáreia, Lat. Neocaesarea). [German version] [1] Town in Pontos This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Syria | Byzantium | Christianity | Asia Minor | Asia Minor | Limes | Rome | Rome A town in Pontus at the southern foot of the Paryadres near present-day Niksar, at the junction of the east-west route from the Amnias valley and up the Lycus valley via the Comana Pontica [2]-Polemonium road [4; 5; 6.Vol. 1, 17-57]; it is mentioned for the first time in Plin. HN. 6,8. N.'s history is traceable vi…

[German version] (Κεντρίτης, Kentrítēs, Xen. An. 4,3,1; Diod. Sic. 14,27,7); according to the route description in Xenophon, the same as the eastern confluent of the Tigris Bohtan Su (province of Siirt), Byzantine Zirmas, Arabic Zarm. Accordingly, the C. formed the boundary between the region of the  Carduchi and Armenia, or rather the Armenian satrapy of  Tiribazus. In the winter of 401/400 BC the Greeks crossed the C. at a widening of the valley with settlements on river terraces, possibly c. 15 km north of the confluence with the Tigris, near the mouth of the Zorova Su. Kessler, Karlhe…

[German version] From the 9th century BC, RR are recorded in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. They constituted clearly defined links between the royal residence and provincial governors, which were paved only in cities to some extent. They were secured by road stations, which accommodated travellers by order of the king, supplied teams of mules and were responsible for the conveyance of mail (for Palestine cf. also Nm. 20:17; 21:22; Dt. 2:27). In the Babylonian Chaldean Empire new RR were built. The similarly structured Achaemenid RR, admired by the Greeks as a purportedly perfect…

[German version] [1] Ruins of Nineveh This item can be found on the following maps: Xenophon (Μέσπιλα; Méspila). In 401 BC, M. is mentioned in Xen. An. 3,4,10 as an abandoned city of ruins, surrounded by a shell stone wall, 50 feet high and just as wide, 6 parasangs in length, on top of which was a brick wall 100 feet high. Xenophon was told that M. had been inhabited by Medes who had fled the Persians, among them the wife of the Medean king. The city - allegedly almost impregnable to the Persian king - is said …

[German version] (Κοίλη Συρία; Koílē Syría). Originally, the geographical term Coele Syria (CS), often used vaguely by authors in antiquity (the ‘hollow’ Syria; Aramaic kōl ‘whole’?), may have referred to the entire part of  Syria west of the Euphrates; others, based on Strabo 16,15,4, see it in a more limited fashion as the area of Biqa* between Lebanon and Antilebanon. First mentioned by Ps.-Scyl. (GGM I 15-96, especially p. 78 c. 104), CS more often only includes South Syria, sometimes incorporating parts or the whole of Phoenicia. Usually excluded is the land east of the Jordan. CS and…

[German version] Assyrian king (680-669 BC). Assyrian Aššur-aḫu-iddina, biblical Asarhaddon, younger son of  Sanherib and Zakûtu (Aramaic Naqia), father of  Assurbanipal and Šamaš-šumu-ukīn. The murder of his father by a brother and the circumstances of his seizing power are mentioned in the Bible (2 Kg 19.37; Jes 37.38). Under A. Egypt was conquered. Even Cypriot minor states recognized Assyrian rulership. In the Iranian highlands Medes and  Cimmerian or  Scythian incursions constituted the great…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Limes (Νικηφόριον/ Nikēphórion). Town at the point where the Baliḥ flows into the Euphrates. As a settlement, it succeeded Tuttul (Tall Bīa) and preceded the Arabic ar-Raqqa. Its founder is variously said to have been Seleucus I (App. Syr. 298), Alexander the Great (Plin. HN 6,119; Isidorus of Charax, Mansiones parthicae 1 GGM 1, 248) and, in Syrian sources, Seleucus II. In the middle of the 3rd cent. AD it was renamed Callinicum (or, in Greek, Καλλίνικος/ Kallínikos). It was also briefly called Constantina and Leontop…

[German version] (Sumerian Idigna, Assyrian/Babylonian Idiqlat, Greek Τίγρης/ Tígrēs (Hdt. 1,189; 1,193; 2,150; 5,52; 6,20), Latin Tigris (Plin. HN 6,129 f. et passim), Arabic Diǧla, Turkish Dicle), at about 1850 km the second longest river of the Near East. The Euphrates [2] and the T. enclose the 'land between two rivers' called Mesopotamia. In Antiquity unclear ideas on the sources of the T. circulated. Assyrian inscriptions at the source cave of the Sebene locate its origin there. Plin. HN 6,127 f., who cites the etymology from Iranian tigri-, 'arrow', mentions a partly su…

[German version] (Μάσκας; Máskas). Xen. An. 1,5,4 locates the River M. south of the confluence of the Chabora ( Ḫabur) and the Euphrates and describes it as encircling the city of Corsote in the desert. It may well have been only a canal. Etymologically, it is perhaps connected with the Akkadian mašqû, ‘watering hole/place’. There was a Neo-Assyrian town called Mašqite in the north of Anatolia. Kessler, Karlheinz (Emskirchen) Bibliography R. D. Barnett, Xenophon and the Wall of Media, in: JHS 73, 1963, 4f. F. H. Weissbach, s.v. M., RE 14, 2069f.

[German version] Founder of a Babylonian family enterprise, often characterised as a firm. M.'s activities began under Darius [1] I. Evidence is provided by more than 830 cuneiform tablets from an archive in Nippur, which are dated between 454 and 404 BC. Most of them concern the enterprises of Ellil-šum-iddin und Rīmūt-Inurta, son and grandson of M. The family was involved in agriculture in the region of Nippur, e.g., in tenancy and subletting of land plots, leasing, tax collection, short-term mo…

[German version] [1] Stoic philosopher from Syrian Tyre Stoic philosopher from Syrian Tyre (born c. AD 40). He married into the family of Pompeius Iulianus, moved to Rome and was perhaps under the patronage of the emperor. Under Hadrian he committed suicide in 118 BC. The skilful protreptic orator ( Protreptics) did not allow himself to be infected by the Cynic fashion and supported moderation and rationalism in philosophical as well as political matters. His resistance to Neo-Pythagorean and Chaldaean tenden…

[German version] A. Concept Semipelagianism is a modern term (probably first used toward the end of the 16th cent. [2]) for a movement in theological thought that emerged in the 5th/6th cents. in the monasteries of southern Gaul, rejecting the teachings of Augustinus (cf. [7]) on grace and predestination. The term Semipelagianism remains academically useful, if one takes account of the following reservations: 1) There is no evidence of direct historical links to the Pelagius [4] who was convicted in…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Xenophon (Κορσωτή, Korsōtḗ). Xen. An. 1,5,4 mentions C. as a large city situated in the desert south of the confluence of the Chaboras ( Habur) and the Euphrates. He describes it as being surrounded by the river  Mascas, probably more of a canal. Attempts to locate it near Bāġūẓ or Hirbat ad-Dīnīya are dubious. Kessler, Karlheinz (Emskirchen) Bibliography R. D. Barnett, Xenophon and the Wall of Media, in: JHS 73, 1963, 3-5.

(Κάπρος; Kápros). [German version] [1] River is eastern Caria River in the upper catchment area of the  Maeander in eastern Caria, modern Başlı Çay; it passes  Laodicea [4] closely to the east (Plin. HN 5,105) and discharges perennially into the Lycus, which runs about 1.5 km below the town in a north-westerly direction towards the Maeander (Str. 12,8,16; Plin. HN 2,225). Coins of the town depict a river god with the C. legend. Kaletsch, Hans (Regensburg) Bibliography G. E. Bean, Kleinasien 3, 1974, 259, 263 Magie 2, 785; 986 Miller, 726 Ramsay 1, 35. [German version] [2] Eastern tributar…

[German version] In Neo-Assyrian sources from the 9th cent. BC onwards, I. is a centre of viticulture, the mountainous area between  Ḥarran,  Amida (modern Diyarbakır) and Mardin in north-eastern Mesopotamia. In Babylonian the toponym is also still used later. Darius I defeated (Old Persian Izalā, Elamite Izzila) the Armenians in I. (TUAT 1, 433 § 29,53). In AD 359, the mons Izala (Amm. Marc. 18,6,12; 19,9,4) was the scene of Roman battles against the Persians. In Syrian and Byzantine texts (Bar Hebraeus; Theophylaktes Simocatta: Ἰζάλας/ Izáles) I. can also include the Mardin…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt The oldest sources for the geography of Mesopotamia consist of topographical lists (3rd millennium BC), of which one lists a total of 289 eastern and central Mesopotamian places. Clay plates from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC occasionally show schematised city maps with labels (Babylon, Nippur, Uruk, Sippar) as well as regional area maps (Nuzi, Tellō, Nippur, Euphratis region, Sippar). These were probably created in the context of land surveying. A world map exists which is unique in its central orientation towards Babylon ( c. 5th cent.…

[German version] (Κοσσαῖοι; Kossaîoi). A mountain people of the Zagros that was divided into tribes, approximately in the area of modern  Luristan, cf. Latin Cossiaei (Plin. HN 6,134); Cossaei (Curt. 4,12,10). Kossaía as the name of a region is found in Diod. Sic. 17,111,5. The relationship to the Kíssioi and the Kissía region (Hdt. 5,49; 5,52; Diod. Sic.11,7,2) remains uncertain. The C. were probably identical to the Cassites ( Kaššu) whose clans infiltrated  Mesopotamia after the 17th cent. BC. Subsequently, a durable Cassitic dynasty, which retained certain Ca…

[German version] (Νήραβος/ Nḗrabos). Town in Syria (Nicolaus of Damascus FGrH 2,341 Fr. 17), modern Nairab south of Aleppo, Arama ic nrb, Neo-Assyrian Nirabu/ Nērebu, part of the province of Arpad. During archaeological investigations two steles with Aramaic funereal inscriptions of priests of the moon god Šahr (moon deity) were uncovered, as well as Babylonian cuneiform texts ( c. 560-500 BC) which attest to the business of a local family that lived temporarily (in exile) in a town in Babylonia that was also called N. Not to be confused with this N. …

[German version] [1] City in eastern Assyria This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Syria | Xenophon | Zenobia | Commerce | Limes | Pompeius City in eastern Assyria on the road leading to the Iranian highlands; settled since the end of the 3rd millennium BC (Urbilum), Assyrian Arbail(u), Greek Ἄρβηλα ( Árbēla) and the Ἀρβηλῖτις ( Arbēlîtis) region (Ptol. 6,1, 2; Plin. HN 6, 41), today Erbīl. A. was the centre of a cult of Ištar and the seat of the governor in both Middle and New Assyria. The temple in A. was particularly favoured under …

[German version] (Τόπαζος; Tópazos). Island, of which Pliny gives a detailed account, allegedly the place of origin of the name of the precious stone topaz. According to Plin.  HN 37,24;108 it was 300 stadia from the Arabian coast in the Red Sea, and  in the language of the Trogodytae T. means 'seek', since the fog-enshrouded island often had to be looked for by seafarers. It appears as an Indian island in Steph. Byz. s.v. Τοπάζιος. Kessler, Karlheinz (Emskirchen)