Tinco is referencing a famous story by Xenophon who was a Greek mercenary who fought for the Persians. The city being references is believed to be Nineveh(1), which was indeed a capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire at one point. The ruins of Nineveh still exist, but they are in northern Iraq, not Syria.

1 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg...