“Kislīmu Day 10, Year 31, Seleucus And Antiochus The Kings”: Greek Elements in Babylonian Sources

After Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon in 539 BC contacts between the Greek and the Babylonian worlds became something more than intermittent. Cuneiform sources bear multiple traces of what we may label a “Greek presence” in Babylonia. Surveying the ample debate on the topic and through the analysis of a few selected examples, the present paper aims at investigating what Greek elements in Babylonian sources may tell us with regard to the forms and characteristics of the contact. Before tackling the problem, the paper will explore terminology as a first step in order to set the basis for a fruitful dialogue between different disciplines