
Ninus (), according to Greek historians writing in the
Hellenistic period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
and later, was the founder of
Nineveh
Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...
(also called Νίνου πόλις "city of Ninus" in Greek), ancient capital of Assyria. The figure or figures with which he corresponds in Assyrian records is uncertain; an association or identification with
Ninurta
Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...
has been proposed. An identification with
Shamshi-Adad I,
Shamshi-Adad V, and/or a conflation of the two have also been suggested.
In Hellenic historiography
Many early accomplishments are attributed to Ninus, such as training the first hunting dogs, and taming horses for riding. For this accomplishment, he is sometimes represented in Greek mythology as a
centaur
A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...
.
The figures of King Ninus and Queen
Semiramis first appear in the history of Persia written by
Ctesias of Cnidus
Ctesias ( ; ; ), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Hellenic civilization, Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire.
Historical events
Ctesias, who lived in the fifth century BC, was ...
(c. 400 BC), who claimed, as court physician to
Artaxerxes II
Arses (; 445 – 359/8 BC), known by his regnal name Artaxerxes II ( ; ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 BC to 358 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius II () and his mother was Parysatis.
Soon after his accession, Ar ...
, to have access to the royal historical records. Ctesias' account was later expanded on by
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
. Ninus continued to be mentioned by European historians (e.g.
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...
), until knowledge of
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
enabled a more precise reconstruction of Assyrian and Babylonian history from the mid 19th century onwards.
He was said to have been the son of
Belus or
Bel, a name that may represent a Semitic title such as
Ba'al, "lord" (the famous name of a "god" whom
Elijah opposed in
1 Kings 17ff). According to
Castor of Rhodes (''apud
Syncellus'' p. 167), his reign lasted 52 years, its commencement, according to Ctesias, corresponding to 2189 BC. He was reputed to have conquered the whole of western
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
in 17 years with the help of Ariaeus, king of
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
, and to have founded the first empire, defeating the legendary kings Barzanes of
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
(whom he spared) and Pharnus of
Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
(whom he had crucified).

As the story goes, Ninus, having conquered all neighboring Asian countries apart from India and
Bactriana, then made war on Oxyartes, king of Bactriana, with an army of nearly two million, taking all but the capital,
Bactra. During the siege of Bactra, he met Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers,
Onnes, whom he took from her husband and married. The fruit of the marriage was
Ninyas, said to have succeeded Ninus.
Ctesias (as known from Diodorus) also related that after the death of Ninus, his widow Semiramis, who was rumored to have murdered Ninus, erected to him a temple-tomb, 9
stadia high and 10 stadia broad, near
Babylon
Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
, where the story of
Pyramus and Thisbe (Πύραμος; Θίσβη) was later based. She was further said to have made war on the last remaining independent monarch in Asia, king Stabrobates of India, but was defeated and wounded, abdicating in favour of her son Ninyas.
Identifications
A number of historians, beginning with the Roman
Cephalion (c. AD 120) asserted that Ninus' opponent, the king of Bactria, was actually
Zoroaster
Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian peoples, Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism ...
(or first of several to bear this name), rather than Oxyartes.
Ninus was first identified in the ''Recognitions'' (part of
Clementine literature) with the biblical
Nimrod
Nimrod is a Hebrew Bible, biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush (Bible), Cush and therefore the great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Sh ...
, who, the author says, taught the Persians to worship fire. In many modern interpretations of the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
text of ''
Genesis'' 10, it is Nimrod, the son of
Cush, who founded Nineveh, though other translations (e.g., the
KJV) render the same passage as naming
Ashur, son of
Shem
Shem (; ''Šēm''; ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible ( Genesis 5–11 and 1 Chronicles 1:4).
The children of Shem are Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to unnamed daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, Christ ...
, as the founder of Nineveh.
More recently, the identification in ''Recognitions'' of Nimrod with Ninus (and also with Zoroaster, as in ''Homilies'') formed a major part of
Alexander Hislop's thesis in the 19th century tract ''
The Two Babylons''.
Historicity
The decipherment of a vast quantity of cuneiform texts has allowed modern
Assyriologists to piece together a more accurate history of
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...
,
Akkad,
Babylonia
Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...
,
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
, and
Chaldea
Chaldea () refers to a region probably located in the marshy land of southern Mesopotamia. It is mentioned, with varying meaning, in Neo-Assyrian cuneiform, the Hebrew Bible, and in classical Greek texts. The Hebrew Bible uses the term (''Ka� ...
aa well as of the Levant, Anatolia and Ancient Iran. Ninus (like Nimrod) is not attested in any of the far older extensive king lists compiled by the Mesopotamians themselves, nor mentioned in any Mesopotamian literature, and is thus considered wholly fictional.
An Assyrian queen
Shammuramat is known to be historical, and for five years from 811 BC ruled the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...
as regent for her son
Adad-nirari III, and had been the wife of
Shamshi-Adad V, rather than having any conne tion to the fictional Ninus. The later Hellenic myths surrounding Semiramis are considered by some to be inspired by the novelty of a woman ruling what was the largest empire in history at that point.
In culture
The story of Ninus and Semiramis is narrated in a 1st-century AD
Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
romance called the ''Ninus Romance'', the ''Novel of Ninus and Semiramis'', or the ''Ninus Fragments''. A scene from it is perhaps depicted in mosaics from
Antioch on the Orontes.
In his 7th-century compendium, the ''
Etymologiae'',
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...
claimed that idolatry was the invention of Ninus, who had a gold statue made of his father Belus, which he worshipped. This claim was highly influential throughout the medieval period into the Early Modern.
Two major works from late-16th-century England refer to Ninus in passing. William Shakespeare's ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...
'' has the story of Pyramus and Thisbe as a play-within-a-play. The actors constantly mispronounce the location "Ninus' Tomb" as "Ninny's Tomb," though they are corrected initially, and in vain, by "director"
Peter Quince. At the same time, Edmund Spencer's epic poem ''
The Faerie Queene
''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...
'' refers to Ninus’ pride in Canto V, verse XLVIII:
:And after him old Ninus farre did pas
:In princely pompe, of all the world obayd
:There also was that mightie Monarch layd
:Low under all, yet above all in pride
In 1846 London, the Italian opera ''
Nabucco'' by Giuseppe Verdi and Temistocle Solera was rewritten as ''Nino'' due to
British censorship; to avoid depicting Biblical scenes, the enslaved Hebrews under Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar were changed to enslaved Babylonians under Serbian Emperor Ninus.
Sources
*
*
Full account in Diodorus
References
External links
{{Authority control
Ancient Assyrians
Hellenistic historiography
Legendary monarchs
Nimrod
Mythological city founders
Nineveh