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1 ssss1 On purely linguistic grounds, Bēl-rē’ûšu (“Bel is his shepherd”) seems the likelier candidate (Stevens 2019: 117–119), but Bēl-rē’ûšunu (“Bel is their shepherd”), which is actually attested, cannot be ruled out. For a suggestion that Berossos was a prominent Babylonian temple official called Bēl-rē’ûšunu, see Van der Spek 2000: 439.

2 ssss1 Eusebius puts him at the time of “Alexander, son of Philip,” by which he must mean Alexander the Great; for an alternative interpretation (“Alexander” = Alexander IV), see below, n.3.

3 ssss1 Some scholars prefer Antiochus II (261–246 BCE), on the grounds that Tatian calls “Antiochus” the third king after “Alexander” (BNJ 680 T 2), and that the Alexander in question must have been the child king Alexander IV. However, it seems inherently implausible that a work dedicated to a Seleucid monarch would have claimed a connection with the insignificant and potentially problematic Alexander IV. Nor is Antiochus II an obvious dedicatee: it was Antiochus I who took a special interest in Babylon since his time as crown prince and regent of the eastern provinces (294–281 BCE).