Sennacherib and Tarsus

Abstract

The aim of the research presented in this paper was to find out more about Tarsus in the time of Sennacherib and his successors from a Mesopotamian standpoint, and to discover whether Assyrian influence persisted into subsequent periods.Two fragments of text attributed to the Babylonian priest Berossus, who lived in Babylon under Antiochus I, have been transmitted by Eusebius and were attributed to Polyhistor and to Abydenus as intermediaries. They relate the deeds of Sennacherib in Cilicia. Both versions say that he built the city of Tarsus in the image of Babylon. Both versions say that Sennacherib defeated Ionians or Greeks in Cilicia. The version of Polyhistor claims that Sennacherib left a statue of himself in Cilicia with a record of his deeds inscribed in ‘Chaldaean’ script, and the text claims, in saying ‘as he (sc. Sennacherib) reports’, to be derived from a contemporary account of Sennacherib's deeds (Burstein 1978: 24 fn 79). Abydenus' version says that the king had his deeds inscribed truthfully and mentions that he built a ‘temple of the Athenians’ and erected bronze pillars.