A Note on the Name “Sinnaces” and Armenian Claims on an Assyrian Royal Background

Abstract

Three separate men bearing the princely name “Sinnaces” are mentioned by Josephus, Plutarch, and Tacitus in various tales of Partho-Armenian dynastic intrigues. The origin of the name is obscure, but this note proposes that it derives from the name of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC), one of a number of Late Antique and medieval Armenian references to a supposed Assyrian background to its royal line.