Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Chaldeans and Chaldoi: Hellanikos of Lesbos and Dikaiarchos of Messena on two peoples (fifth century BCE on),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified July 29, 2026, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=22966.

Ancient authors: Hellanikos of Lesbos (fifth century BCE), Dikaiarchos of Messena (late fourth century BCE), and others, as cited by Stephanos of Byzantion (sixth century CE), Ethnika, and Eustathios (twelfth century CE), Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes’ Guide to the World 767.

Comments: The designations employed by Greeks to identify foreign peoples varied considerably and did not necessarily match with self-designations deployed by particular populations for themselves. The passages below regarding who the “Chaldeans” were illustrate this well. Likewise, etymologies (e.g. why a people was named in a particular way and who their supposed eponymous ancestor was) varied and were simply made-up a lot of the time. When we do have evidence of a population’s self-designation, often though not always the designation differs considerably from etic, Greek categorizations.

The varied traditions collected here regarding who, from a Greek perspective, the Chaldeans were illustrate this well. In a now lost work of the fifth century, Hellanikos speaks of a people named the Kephanians who left Babylon to conquer territories (likely imagined to be further south around Ur) associated with Chaldeans in Hellanikos’ own time. In the late fourth century BCE, Dikaiarchos of Messena (on Sicily) suggests there were similarly named peoples both in Kolchis (east of the Black Sea) and in the region between the Euphrates and Tigris. Both Stephanos and Eustathios cite a passage in Dikaiarchos’ lost work to this effect.

In some of the sources, Chaldeans are imagined to be identified with what we would call Assyrians further to the north (notice the mention of Ninos), in others with Babylonians, and in still others with Persians. Of course, the term Chaldeans could also be used by both Greek and Roman authors to refer to a specific, highly educated sub-section of wise men from the east, comparable to Magians (on which see other posts on Chaldeans as wise barbarians – link).

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Stephanos of Byzantion

Chaldeans: Formerly the Kephenians (Kēphēnes), named after Kepheus, the father of Andromeda, from the union of Andromeda and Perseus – son of Danai and Zeus – sprang Perses, after whom the Kephenians and Chaldeans were formerly called “Persians,” as stated in the entry on Kephenia. However, Hellanikos states the following in the first book of Persian Matters (= FGrHist 4 F 59):

“After Kepheus had died, the Kephenians set out from Babylon on a campaign, left their own country, and occupied the Chaldean land. The conquered territory is no longer called Kephenia, and the people inhabiting it are no longer called Kephenians, but Chaldeans.”

And this entire country (chōra) is now called “Chaldaia.” They were named after a certain person Chaldaios, as Dikaiarchos says in the first book of his Life of Greece: “The person named Ninos (or: Ninus) among them became distinguished in intelligence and power and settled a city named after himself. From this point, they say the fourteenth king was named Chaldaios. They say he built Babylon, the most famous city around the river Euphrates, gathering together everyone called Chaldeans (Chaldaioi) into the same place.” Dikaiarchos says there is also a country (chōra) called “Chaldaia,” and there is a people (ethnos) Chaldaeans near Kolchis [i.e. west of our Black Sea]. Sophocles in the Tympanists: “Kolchian and Chaldean and the people of Syrians.”

Those who know more, however, state that the Chaldeans lived in the region surrounding Babylon, as has been shown; they maintained an oracle site among the barbarians, comparable to Delphi among the Greeks.

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Eustathius

Chaldia is a country (chōra) of Armenia, to which the Pontic kingdom
extends. Customarily, they are called “Chaldoi” there with two syllables, not “Chaldeans” (Chaldaioi). For the “Chaldeans” with three syllables, were formerly the “Kephenians” (Kēphenes) and then the “Persians” (Perseis), named after Perseus. The Chaldeans were named after a certain man Chaldaios, who they say became the fourth after ten, namely the fourteenth king, after Ninos (or: Ninus) and who established Babylon. And he called those gathered together “Chaldeans” after himself. However, the Chaldoi around Kolchis [i.e. west of our Black Sea] are also “Chaldeans” with three syllables, according to Dikaiarchos.

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Source of translations: Harland, in consultation with William W. Fortenbaugh and Eckart Schütrumpf, Dicaearchus of Messana: Text, Translation, and Discussion (Transaction Publishers: New Brunswick, NJ, 2001).