By Water & Blood

Chapter 20: Death of Semiramis; Ninyas

Diodorus’s Assyrian narrative here follows Ctesias’s Persica (Ninus and Semiramis). Ctesias does not use the name Nimrod.

^[3] Such, then, is the account that Ctesias of Cnidus has given about Semiramis; but Athenaeus⁠^[47] and certain other historians say that she was a comely courtesan and because of her beauty was loved by the king of the Assyrians. ^[4] Now at first she was accorded only a moderate acceptance in the palace, but later, when p419 she had been proclaimed a lawful wife, she persuaded the king to yield the royal prerogatives to her for a period of five days.⁠^{[48] [5]} And Semiramis, upon receiving the sceptre and the regal garb, on the first day held high festival and gave a magnificent banquet, at which she persuaded the commanders of the military forces and all the greatest dignitaries to co‑operate with her; and on the second day, while the people and the most notable citizens were paying her their respects as queen, she arrested her husband and put him in prison; and since she was by nature a woman of great designs and bold as well, she seized the throne and remaining queen until old age accomplished many great things. Such, then, are the conflicting accounts which may be found in the historians regarding the career of Semiramis.