Page "Assyria" Paragraph 27

Classical historiographers had only retained a very dim picture of Assyria.

It was remembered that there had been an Assyrian empire predating the Persian one, but all particulars were lost.

Thus Jerome's Chronicon lists 36 kings of the Assyrians, beginning with Ninus, son of Belus, down to Sardanapalus, the last king of the Assyrians before the empire fell to Arbaces the Median.

Almost none of these have been substantiated as historical, with the exception of the Neo-Assyrian and Babylonian rulers listed in Ptolemy's Canon, beginning with Nabonassar.