Editing Ninus (section)

==Identifications==
A number of historians, beginning with the Roman [[Cephalion (historian)|Cephalion]] (c. AD 120) asserted that Ninus' opponent, the king of Bactria, was actually [[Zoroaster]] (or first of several to bear this name), rather than Oxyartes.

Ninus was first identified in the ''Recognitions'' (part of [[Clementine literature]]) with the biblical [[Nimrod]], who, the author says, taught the Persians to worship fire. In many modern interpretations of the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] text of ''[[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]'' 10, it is Nimrod, the son of [[Biblical Cush|Cush]], who founded Nineveh, though other translations (e.g., the [[KJV]]) render the same passage as naming [[Ashur (Bible)|Ashur]], son of [[Shem]], as the founder of Nineveh.<ref>The King James Version of verses 8-12 has "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city." But verse 11 can be interpreted as "Out of that land went forth Asshur. And he (that is, Nimrod) builded Nineveh..."</ref>

More recently, the identification in ''Recognitions'' of Nimrod with Ninus (and also with Zoroaster, as in ''Homilies'') formed a major part of [[Alexander Hislop]]'s thesis in the 19th century tract ''[[The Two Babylons]]''.