"Aramean" "Syrian" and "Assyrian"
"But as can be seen, the name was widespread for both the people and the language from Damascus to beyond the Tigris. And yet, it had almost disappeared at a time when the Aramean nationality was still far from its decline. The Greeks never really knew the name "Aramean"; apart from Posidonius (whom Strabo follows), it is only mentioned to us by another Oriental, Josephus (Ant. 1, 6, 4). It is highly improbable that Homer was thinking of them with the Eremboi or in the words ein Arimois. The Greeks called the people "Syrians". Already Seelen (de Dis Syris, prol. cap. 1) explained Syrioi or Syroi as a shortening of Assyrioi. Namely, the Greeks first called the subjects of the Assyrian Empire "Syrians" without distinction, regardless of nationality. Later, however, they fixed this name (in contrast to the fuller form which they used for the Tigris regions) upon the northwestern Semitic lands, and finally used it to designate the dominant nationality in these areas, so that Syroi was indeed equal to Aramaioi. What I briefly assert here, I have explained in detail in an essay appearing these days in "Hermes", to which I must refer the readers. In time, the Arameans themselves also adopted this Greek name, "Syrians"."
