| Summary: | All the works of the prolific encyclopaedic author Alexander Polyhistor have only been preserved in fragments: only his 'On Jews' and 'Chaldaica' are better known. In his 'On Jews', Polyhistor brought together various sources on Jewish history. The 'Chaldaica' addressed Babylonian as well as Assyrian history, and apparently consisted of an epitome Polyhistor had made of the Babyloniaca of Berossos combined with the classical account of the Assyrian kings. In the extant text of his epitome of Berossos' work, as it has been preserved by Jewish and Christian authors, there are clearly insertions - passages that do not derive from Berossos' Babyloniaca. Was Alexander Polyhistor responsible for them? In most cases it is difficult to give an answer, but some insertions can be ascribed to Polyhistor.
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