Nino

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Nino appears in Canto V of the Inferno solely as a historical-antiquarian reference, within the list of the lustful that opens with Semiramis. The note to verse 60 explains that she "held the land that the Sultan now rules," that is, Babylon, and recalls how, according to Diodorus Siculus (Hist. II 3), Nino would also have conquered Egypt: the hypothesis allows "land" to be understood as "region" rather than as the city alone. The note also observes that, since this concerns Assyrian Babylon and not that of Egypt, Semiramis can only be defined by her celebrated seat. Nino's name is not linked to any personal event in the canto, but only to his function as predecessor of the Assyrian queen, to whom verse 59 connects him with the formula "who succeeded Nino and was his wife." No other biographical data or anecdotes about him emerge from the sources.