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To: MarlonRando

yes — and hey, we’re all mixtures :)

I just wanted to point out that the Syrians and the Assyrians were different.

The words Syria and Assyria are these confusing tangles.

Assyria - from Aššur (Ashur), the city in northern Mesopotamia (modern northern Iraq), which was the heart of Assyria - it was originally founded by the Akkadian empire (2200 to 2000 BC) and then muddled along for 1000 years bullied by neighbors until Tighlath Pileser III (one of my historical heroes), formed an empire that terrified everyone (they were the Borg!) until the BAbylonians and Medes together crushed them in 620 BC.

The Greeks came later and used the word “Syria” to describe what we think of today as Syria + Iraq. Then it narrowed to just what we think of today as Syria.

The Greeks also made a mess of other nation’s names too - it called the lands of Azerbaijan as “Albania”

They also took the land of Hayastan (named after the legendary ancestor of the Armenians Hayk), and named it after the Persian satrapy (province) called Armina - so Armenia

They also took the Kartvelian people who lived in the area they called Sakartvelo and named them first Iberia, then Georgia

They named all the “barbarians” (speakers of “bah bah languages” i.e. non-Greek speakers) to the north as Scythians, clubbing together Iranic, Thracian, proto-Slavic, Finno-Ugric, Hunnic etc. etc. speakers under one term “scyth”

They also took the Persian geographic term “Hindhu” river (original name Sindhu river) and dropped the H to say the land was “Indu” and then “Indie”

ah, those wacky Greeks!


32 posted on 09/11/2025 4:57:24 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

yes and if memory serves, the Babylonians and Assyrian Empire basically existed at different times in the same area, so they were basically the same people.


33 posted on 09/11/2025 5:13:46 AM PDT by MarlonRando
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