Berossus & Manetho · a new plain-English translation from the original language
CA 1.128-133. I shall now state what stands recorded and related about us among the Chaldeans — matters which are in great agreement with our own writings on other points as well. The witness for these things is Berossus, a man Chaldean by birth but familiar to all who occupy themselves with learning, since it was he who brought out for the Greeks the treatises on astronomy and on the philosophy practiced among the Chaldeans. This Berossus, then, following the most ancient records, has told — just as Moses does — of the flood that occurred and the destruction of mankind in it, and of the chest in which Nochos, the founder of our race, was brought safely through when it was carried to the summits of the Armenian mountains. Then, listing those descended from Nochos and adding their dates, he comes down to Nabopalassaros, who was king over Babylon and the Chaldeans; and recounting his deeds, he tells in what manner he sent his son Nabokodrosoros with a great force against Egypt and against our land, when he learned that they had revolted; and how he mastered them all, and burned the temple in Jerusalem, and uprooted our entire people and resettled them in Babylon — and so it came about that the city lay desolate for a span of seventy years, until Cyrus king of the Persians. And he says the Babylonian mastered Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia, surpassing in his deeds all who had reigned before him over the Chaldeans and Babylonians.
CA 1.134-139. [Then a little further down Berossus again sets this out in his history of antiquity.] I shall quote Berossus's own words, which run in this manner: 'His father Nabopalassaros, hearing that the satrap stationed in Egypt and in the districts of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia had turned rebel, and being no longer able to bear hardship himself, entrusted certain parts of his force to his son Nabokodrosoros, who was still in his prime, and sent him out against the man. Nabokodrosoros engaged the rebel, joined battle, defeated him, and brought the land back from the start under their kingdom. And it happened that at this very season his father Nabopalassaros fell sick in the city of the Babylonians and departed this life, having reigned twenty-one years. Learning of his father's death not long after, Nabokodrosoros settled the affairs of Egypt and the rest of the country; the captive Jews, Phoenicians, and Syrians, together with the peoples of Egypt he assigned to certain of his friends, to convey to Babylonia together with the heaviest part of the force and the rest of the spoils; and he himself, setting out with a small company, came through the desert to Babylon. Finding affairs administered by the Chaldeans and the kingship kept for him by the best man among them, and now master of his father's whole dominion, he ordered that, when the captives arrived, settlements be assigned them in the most suitable districts of Babylonia. He himself, from the spoils of the war, adorned the temple of Belus and the rest with an open hand; the city that existed from of old he refashioned, adding another outside it; and — compelling matters so that besiegers could no longer turn the river against the city — he threw around it three circuit-walls for the inner city and three for the outer, some of baked brick and asphalt, some of brick alone.'
CA 1.140-145. 'And having walled the city in worthy fashion and adorned its gateways as befits something sacred, he built beside his father's palace another palace adjoining it, whose height and general magnificence it would perhaps be long to describe — except that, vast and proud, the whole was brought to completion within fifteen days. In this palace he built up high stone terraces, gave them an appearance most like mountains, and planted them with trees of every kind, so producing and furnishing what is called the hanging garden — because his wife, who had been raised in the districts of Media, longed for a mountain landscape.' These things he has related about the aforesaid king, and much besides, in the third book of the Chaldaica, in which he faults the Greek writers for vainly supposing that Babylon was founded by Semiramis the Assyrian, and for falsely writing that its marvelous works were built by her. On these matters the record of the Chaldeans must be held trustworthy; and what is more, in the archives of the Phoenicians as well things are recorded that agree with what Berossus says about the king of the Babylonians — that he subdued Syria and all Phoenicia. On these points Philostratus concurs in his histories, mentioning the siege of Tyre, and Megasthenes in the fourth book of his Indica, through which he tries to show that this king of the Babylonians surpassed Heracles in courage and in the greatness of his deeds; for he says he subdued the greater part of Libya, and Iberia. And what was said above about the temple in Jerusalem — that it was burned down when the Babylonians marched against it, and began to be rebuilt when Cyrus had taken over the kingship of Asia — will be clearly demonstrated from Berossus's own words set beside it.
CA 1.146-151. For he speaks thus in his third book: 'Nabokodrosoros, then, after he had begun the aforesaid wall, fell into sickness and departed this life, having reigned forty-three years; and his son Eveilmaradouchos became master of the kingdom. This man, managing affairs lawlessly and wantonly, was plotted against by Neriglisaros, the husband of his sister, and was killed, having reigned two years. After his killing, Neriglisaros, the man who had plotted against him, succeeded to the rule and reigned four years. His son Laborosoardochos, though a boy, was master of the kingdom nine months; but being plotted against because he displayed much viciousness of character, he was beaten to death by his friends. On his destruction the plotters met together and by common counsel conferred the kingship on a certain Nabonnedos, one of the Babylonians, a man of the same conspiracy. In his reign the walls of the city of the Babylonians along the river were finely built up with baked brick and asphalt. And when his reign stood in its seventeenth year, Cyrus, having come forth from Persis with a great force and subdued all the rest of the kingdom, drove hard against Babylonia. Nabonnedos, learning of his advance, met him with his force and joined battle; beaten in the fight and fleeing with a small company, he was shut up in the city of the Borsippenes.'
CA 1.152-153. 'Cyrus took Babylon, and gave orders to raze the outer walls of the city, because the city had shown itself exceedingly troublesome to him and hard to take; and he then marched on Borsippa to besiege Nabonnedos out of it. But Nabonnedos did not await the siege; he gave himself up first, and Cyrus, treating him humanely, gave him Carmania for a dwelling-place and sent him out of Babylonia. Nabonnedos, then, passing the remainder of his time in that land, there ended his life.'