The list of Assyrian kings is compiled from the Assyrian King List, an ancient Semitic Akkadian kingdom and empire in northern Mesopotamia (modern northern Iraq) with information added from recent archaeological findings. The Assyrian King List includes regnal lengths that appear to have been based on now lost limmu lists (which list the names of eponymous officials for each year). These regnal lengths accord well with Hittite, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian king lists and with the archaeological record, and are considered reliable for the age.
Prior to the discovery of cuneiform tablets listing ancient Assyrian kings, scholars before the 19th century only had access to two complete Assyrian King Lists, one found in Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicle (c. 325 AD), of which two editions exist and secondly a list found in the Excerpta Latina Barbari.
An incomplete list of 16 Assyrian kings was also discovered in the literature of Sextus Julius Africanus. Other very fragmentary Assyrian king lists have come down to us written by the Greeks and Romans such as Ctesias of Cnidus (c. 400 BC) and the Roman authors Castor of Rhodes (1st century BC) and Cephalion (1st century AD).
Since the discovery and decipherment of cuneiform records, these "post-cuneiform" Assyrian King Lists are not considered very reliable or factual, but may contain minor historical truths that became heavily corrupted over the centuries. Some scholars argue further that they are either entire fabrications or fiction.
Read more about List Of Assyrian Kings: Cuneiform Sources, Africanus' List, Eusebius' List, Excerpta Latina Barbari, List in Arabic
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