The following tables make no pretence to finality. In Babylonian history no date before b.c. 747 can be considered absolutely fixed. In Assyrian history the Eponym Canon certainly goes back to about b.c. 893. Then scattered notices in later writers enable us to approximate to earlier dates and the varied synchronisms between Assyrian and Babylonian kings render the dates probable, as far back as the First Dynasty of Babylon. There is only one fixed date before that, the period of Sargon I., which depends on a statement of Nabonidus.

The sequence of monarchs is, however, very probably correct. As knowledge increases, more names will be added to fill up the gaps, and dated documents will give the lengths of the reigns. A discussion of the grounds for the dates cannot be given here. The reader may refer to Dr. P. Rost, in the Mittheilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1897, No. 2, and Orientalistische Litteratur-Zeitung, 1900, pp. 143, 175, 212. Radau's Early Babylonian History may be consulted for the earliest dates.

In the early periods, a vertical line between two names denotes that the second was son of the former. This is often all we know, but it is useful to mark the fact, as we cannot then insert other rulers between them. Names printed in capitals are either Sumerian or their true pronunciation is unknown. When these capitals are in Roman type, we know that they were kings or Patesis; when they are printed in italic, we only know that they were the parents of those whose names follow. We do not then know whether they reigned or not.

For Assyrian chronology, see Annals of the Kings of Assyria, by Budge and King, 1902.