Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt

Berossos and Manetho presents, in translation and with an introduction, the only known native narratives written in Greek of the histories of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The priest Berossos chronicled the past of ancient Babylon from the mythical creation of the world down to the conquest by Alexander the Great. For Egypt, Manetho's list of rulers from the reigns of the gods down to Alexander's conquest remains the basis for the still-current dynastic system of arranging the pharaohs. Berossos and Manetho begins with a general introduction to the cultural history of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, with stress on the languages and scripts used to preserve their glorious pasts. Each of the two authors receives his own special introduction, which describes his life, the sources of his History, the nature and content of his writings, and his goals and accomplishments. There follows a translation of all the surviving ancient information about each author and of all that can be recovered of his writings. For the first time Berossos and Manetho, priests and contemporaries who wrote histories in Greek of their native lands - just when those lands had been pushed into Hellenization - have been translated in one volume. Berossos and Manetho will appeal to all people interested in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, ancient Israel, ancient Greek history (especially the Hellenistic period), and ancient history in general.