Sudines

Definition

Sudines is a third-century-BCE Babylonian astronomer-diviner known from Greek sources as a Chaldaean bārû (extispicy-diviner) who performed a divination for Attalus I of Pergamon before his victorious battle with the Gauls c. 235 BCE (Polyaenus *Strategemata* IV 20). Strabo (*Geographica* XVI 1, 6) includes him alongside Cidenas (Kidinnu) and Naburianus (Naburimannu) among the noteworthy μαθηματικοί of Babylon. He is the principal documentary anchor for direct personal contact between the Babylonian astral tradition and a Hellenistic royal court.

In Tradition

In modern historiography of the Babylonian-to-Greek transmission Sudines functions as one of three named Late Babylonian astronomers the Greek tradition preserved (alongside Kidinnu and Nabû-rimannu). Pingree treats him as evidence of third-century-BCE Asia-Minor knowledge of Mesopotamian astral divination. Neugebauer cites Sudines as concrete documentary proof of intimate Babylonian-Greek contact in the early Hellenistic period — a named Babylonian scholar attested at a Greek royal court during the formative period of Hellenistic mathematical astronomy.

In Practice

For the student of how Babylonian astral knowledge reached the Greek world, Sudines is the named individual the Greek doxographic tradition cites alongside Berossos as a Babylonian-to-Greek transmission anchor. Pingree documents that the extispicy he performed for Attalus I survives in Polyaenus *Strategemata* IV 20 (cf. Frontinus *Strategemata* I 11, 15, who instead names the king Eumenes); a separate notice in a summary of a commentary — probably by Posidonius — on Plato's *Timaeus* quotes Sudines for an astrological doctrine that Venus is the destroyer of women (Hübner *ZPE* 73, 1988, 33-42 and 109-10; Lasserre 1986). Strabo XVI 1, 6 includes him among the Babylonian μαθηματικοί. Neugebauer in his essay [3] uses Sudines as the historiographical lever for arguing that the components of Hellenistic mathematical astronomy were formed during a period of direct Babylonian-Greek contact rather than via diffusion through centuries. Recognising Sudines as a bārû (extispicy-diviner) rather than as a System A/B mathematical astronomer distinguishes him sharply from Kidinnu and Nabû-rimannu.

Historical Origin

Sudines is attested at Pergamon c. 235 BCE under Attalus I (Polyaenus *Strategemata* IV 20; Strabo *Geographica* XVI 1, 6; Frontinus *Strategemata* I 11, 15). The Posidonius-commentary attribution survives in a *Timaeus*-commentary summary. Modern critical treatments: David Pingree, *From Astral Omens to Astrology: From Babylon to Bīkāner* (Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente 1997), Ch. 2 pp. 24-25; Otto Neugebauer, *Astronomy and History: Selected Essays* (Springer 1983), essay [3] vol. pp. 26-27; Lasserre 1986; Hübner *ZPE* 73 (1988) 33-42 and 109-10.

Further Reading

• David Pingree, From Astral Omens to Astrology: From Babylon to Bīkāner
• Otto Neugebauer, Astronomy and History: Selected Essays