3 ms·

Cyrus Cylinder Translation

17 points by gumby 3y ago

082349872349872 3y ago
Nice to see that some tropes never go out of style. /s https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#Page_8 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#Pa... > The text is interesting because it combines the following techniques, all of them sound: 1) naming the specific enemy; 2) appeal to the "better people"; 3) sympathy for the common people; 4) claim of support for the legitimate government; 5) affirmation of one's own strength and high morale; 6) invocation of unity; 7) appeal to religion. "The text" in the original refers to something quoted in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), but we can probably mark Cyrus to market in the affirmative on several of these. Let's see: 7, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2 for sure, and probably it used to have even 1 in the sections marked "x x x" Edit: yes, https://www.livius.org/sources/content/cyrus-cylinder/cyrus-cylinder-translation/ https://www.livius.org/sources/content/cyrus-cylinder/cyrus-... says the expurgated name is "Nabonidus"
- blacksmith_tb 3y ago
  Can't say I knew him personally, but it's also possible that he was self-aggrandizing and still a relatively good leader? Obviously it feels to modern readers like it's kind of a stretch to claim the Cylinder is the birth of the concept of human rights[1] but that doesn't mean that a king setting out in writing his obligations to his subjects wasn't an important milestone. 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-21747567 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-21747567
Joker_vD 3y ago
The year -539? Is this the year 540 BC or the year 539 BC?
- bqmjjx0kac 3y ago
  TIL that 1 BC is succeeded by 1 AD. There is no 0 AD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero
  - Joker_vD 3y ago
    Well, yes, it's sign-magnitude, so the options are to either have no zeroth year at all (like we actually do), or have two of them (..., -1 BC, 0 BC, 0 AD, 1 AD, ...).
    - eigenket 3y ago
      Why would you not just have 0AD be the same year as 0BC, just like with real number where 0 = -0?
- pixodaros 3y ago
  Astronomers, who are one of the groups very interested in Late Babylonia, use astronomical year numbering with a year 0 to make the math easier, but Amelie Kurt gives the date of the fall of Babylon as October 539 BC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering
dang 3y ago
Url changed from https://braddelong.substack.com/p/reading-cyrus-cylinder https://braddelong.substack.com/p/reading-cyrus-cylinder, which points to this.

17 points by gumby 3y ago

Nice to see that some tropes never go out of style. /s https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#Page_8 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#Pa... > The text is interesting because it combines the following techniques, all of them sound: 1) naming the specific enemy; 2) appeal to the "better people"; 3) sympathy for the common people; 4) claim of support for the legitimate government; 5) affirmation of one's own strength and high morale; 6) invocation of unity; 7) appeal to religion. "The text" in the original refers to something quoted in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), but we can probably mark Cyrus to market in the affirmative on several of these. Let's see: 7, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2 for sure, and probably it used to have even 1 in the sections marked "x x x" Edit: yes, https://www.livius.org/sources/content/cyrus-cylinder/cyrus-cylinder-translation/ https://www.livius.org/sources/content/cyrus-cylinder/cyrus-... says the expurgated name is "Nabonidus"

blacksmith_tb 3y ago
Can't say I knew him personally, but it's also possible that he was self-aggrandizing and still a relatively good leader? Obviously it feels to modern readers like it's kind of a stretch to claim the Cylinder is the birth of the concept of human rights[1] but that doesn't mean that a king setting out in writing his obligations to his subjects wasn't an important milestone. 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-21747567 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-21747567

Joker_vD 3y ago

The year -539? Is this the year 540 BC or the year 539 BC?

bqmjjx0kac 3y ago
TIL that 1 BC is succeeded by 1 AD. There is no 0 AD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero
- Joker_vD 3y ago
  Well, yes, it's sign-magnitude, so the options are to either have no zeroth year at all (like we actually do), or have two of them (..., -1 BC, 0 BC, 0 AD, 1 AD, ...).
  - eigenket 3y ago
    Why would you not just have 0AD be the same year as 0BC, just like with real number where 0 = -0?
pixodaros 3y ago
Astronomers, who are one of the groups very interested in Late Babylonia, use astronomical year numbering with a year 0 to make the math easier, but Amelie Kurt gives the date of the fall of Babylon as October 539 BC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering

dang 3y ago

Url changed from https://braddelong.substack.com/p/reading-cyrus-cylinder https://braddelong.substack.com/p/reading-cyrus-cylinder, which points to this.