Ctesias ( as known from Diodorus ) also related that after the death of Ninus, his widow Semiramis, who was rumored to have murdered Ninus, erected to him a temple-tomb, 9 stadia high and 10 stadia broad, near Babylon, where the story of Pyramus and Thisbe ( Πύραμος ; Θίσβη ) was later based.

According to Ctesias ( in Persica 20 ), Artabanus then accused the Crown Prince Darius, Xerxes's eldest son, of the murder and persuaded another of Xerxes's sons, Artaxerxes, to avenge the patricide by killing Darius.

The Greek historians Ctesias and Deinon noted that Artaxerxes II was also called Arsicas or Oarses respectively similarly understood to be derived from Khshayarsha, the former as the shortened form together with the Persian suffix-ke applied to such shortened names.

Ctesias, who lived in the 5th century BC, was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger.

Further information is contained in the excerpts from Ctesias by Photius ; Plutarch ’ s lives of Artaxerxes II and Lysander ; also Thucydides ' History of Peloponnesian War.

The figures of King Ninus and Queen Semiramis first appear in the history of Persia written by Ctesias of Cnidus ( c. 400 BC ), who claimed, as court physician to Artaxerxes II, to have access to the royal historical records.

It passed into European folklore first through a remark by Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes II in the fourth century BC, in his notes on India (" Indika "), which circulated among Greek writers on natural history but have not survived.

Ctesias ' Persica is lost, but we know of its contents by later compilations and from the work of Diodorus ( II. 27 ).

Ctesias of Cnidus (; ) was a Greek physician and historian from Cnidus in Caria.

Ctesias was the author of treatises on rivers, and on the Persian revenues, of an account of India entitled Indica ( which is of value as recording the beliefs of the Persians about India ), and of a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books, called Persica, written in opposition to Herodotus in the Ionic dialect, and professedly founded on the Persian royal archives.

An inscription on one of the tombs declares it to be that of Darius Hystaspis, concerning whom Ctesias relates that his grave was in the face of a rock, and could only be reached by the use of ropes.

Ctesias assumes that it was the custom for a king to prepare his own tomb during his lifetime.

Cyrus the Great was buried in Pasargadae, which is mentioned by Ctesias as his own city.

Ctesias ' account was later expanded on by Diodorus Siculus.

According to Herodotus, the name of the Magian usurper was Oropastes, but according to Ctesias it was Sphendadates.

According to Ctesias, who is not especially reliable but is often our only source, Amytis, wife of Megabyzus and daughter of Xerxes, was accused of adultery shortly afterwards.

Ctesias tells us the reason was that Amestris had the captives from the Egyptian revolt executed, though Megabyzus had given his word that they would not be harmed.

He was an obscure historical figure known primarily from the writings of Ctesias.

The usual account of Mesopotamian history came from Ctesias of Cnidus's Persica, while most of the value of Berossos was seen to be his astrological writings.

The ancient Greek historians Ctesias and Plutarch noted that Cyrus was named from Kuros, the Sun, a concept which has been interpreted as meaning " like the Sun " by noting its relation to the Persian noun for sun, khor, while using-vash as a suffix of likeness.

Sardanapalus (; sometimes spelled Sardanapallus ) was, according to the Greek writer Ctesias of Cnidus, the last king of Assyria.

The character which Ctesias depicted or invented, an effeminate debauchee, sunk in luxury and sloth, who at the last was driven to take up arms, and, after a prolonged but ineffectual resistance, avoided capture by suicide, cannot be identified.

Ctesias of Cnidus relates that Datis was slain at Marathon and that the Athenians refused to hand over his body, however this conflicts with Herodotus ' earlier analysis that Datis survived the battle

According to Herodotus, he was a son of Persian king Darius I by his wife Atossa, and full brother of Xerxes I. Ctesias, who wrongly calls him Achaemenides, states that he was a son of Xerxes, rather than his brother.

Astyages ( spelled by Herodotus as Ἀστυάγης-Astyages ; by Ctesias as Astyigas ; by Diodorus as Aspadas ; Akkadian: Ištumegu, was the last king of the Median Empire, r. 585 BCE-550 BCE, the son of Cyaxares ; he was dethroned in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great.

The Greco-Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias of Cnidus, and are alluded by other authors, such as the playwright Aeschylus.

" In On the Nature of Animals ( Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium ), Aelian, quoting Ctesias, adds that India produces also a one-horned horse ( iii.

The Greco-Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias of Cnidus, and are alluded by other authors, such as the playwright Aeschylus.

Herodotus presents the Lydian accounts of the conversation with Solon ( Histories 1. 29 -. 33 ), the tragedy of Croesus ' son Atys ( Histories 1. 34 -. 45 ) and the fall of Croesus ( Histories 1. 85 -. 89 ); Xenophon instances Croesus in his panegyric fictionalized biography of Cyrus: Cyropaedia, 7. 1 ; and Ctesias, whose account is also an encomium of Cyrus.

The Greco-Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias of Cnidus, and are referred to by other authors, such as the playwright Aeschylus.

He is called Tonyoxarces ( Sphendadates ) by Ctesias, he is called Tanooxares by Xenophon, who takes the name from Ctesias, and he is called Mardos by Justin and Aeschylus.

The Byzantine scholar Photius, epitomizing an ancient work by the Greek author Ctesias ( Indica, L ), writes: " In Ethiopia there is an animal called crocottas, vulgarly kynolykos, of amazing strength.

In Ctesias ' tale ( reported by Diodorus ) the war originated from an offence the king gave to an able powerful Persian, called Parsodes.

2 ) names Damascus ; Ctesias, Babylon, which is absolutely impossible.

In excerpts from Ctesias some harem intrigues are recorded, in which he played a disreputable part.

Ctesias claims that the Athenian fleet numbered only 110 triremes, which ties in with Aeschylus's numbers.

Pliny the Elder cited Ctesias and quoted Photius identifying the Chimera with an area of permanent gas vents which still can be found today by hikers on the Lycian Way in southwest Turkey.

Minor sources for the period include the works of Pompeius Trogus ( epitomized by Justinus ), Cornelius Nepos and Ctesias of Cnidus ( epitomized by Photius ), which are not in their original textual form.

Ctesias, in his Persica, has the longest account, which says Cyrus met his death while putting down resistance from the Derbices infantry, aided by other Scythian archers and cavalry, plus Indians and their elephants.

The first accounts of the Seres, of disputed authenticity, seem to be those by the Greek historian Ctesias in the 5th century BC, in which he refers to them as " people of portentous stature and longevity.

Against these the Medes armed no less than eight hundred thousand men ( these are the numbers given by Ctesias, which shouldn't be given much trust ).