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Records of the Past, 2nd series, Vol. I

By A. H. Sayce

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Coloumn II

1. I burned, I threw down, I dug up. The rest
2. of (the men of) Kummukh, who before my weapons
3. had fled, to the city of Seresse 1
4. on the further bank of the Tigris
5. passed over; the city for their stronghold
6. they made. My chariots and warriors
7. I took. The difficult mountains and their inaccessible
8. paths with picks of bronze
9. I split. A pontoon for the passage
10. of my chariots and army I contrived.
11. The Tigris I crossed. The city of Serise,
12. their strong city, I captured.
13. Their fighting men, in the midst of the mountains,
14. I flung to the ground like sling-stones (?). 2
15. Their corpses over the Tigris and the high places of the mountains
16. I spread. In those days the armies
17. of the land of Qurkhê, 3 which for the preservation
18. and help of the land of Kummukh
19. had come, along with the armies
20. of Kummukh, like a moon-stone I laid low.
21. The corpses of their fighting men into heaps
22. in the ravines of the mountains I heaped up;
23. the bodies of their soldiers the river Name

24. carried away into the Tigris.
25. Kili-anteru the son of Kali-anteru,
26. (the descendant) of ’Saru-pin-’siusuni, 1
27. their king in the midst of battle my hand
28. captured; his wives (and) children
29. the offspring of his heart, his troops, 180
30. bronze plates, 5 bowls of copper,
31. along with their gods, gold (and) silver,
32. the choicest of their property, I removed.
33. Their spoil (and) their goods I carried away.
34. The city itself and its palace with fire
35. I burned, I pulled down, (and) dug up.

_________

36. As for the city of Urrakhinas, their stronghold,
37. which was situated on the mountain of Panari,
38. fear that avoided the glory of Assur my lord
39. overwhelmed them. To save
40. their lives they removed their gods;
41. to the ravines of the lofty mountains
42. they fled like a bird. My chariots
43. and armies I took; I crossed the Tigris.
44. Sadi-anteru, the son of Khattukhi, 2 the king
45. of Urrakhinas, that he might not be conquered,
46. in that country took my feet.
47. The children, the offspring of his heart, and his family
48. I took as hostages.
49. Sixty bronze plates, a bowl of copper,
50. and a tray of heavy copper,
51. along with 120 men, oxen,
52. (and) sheep, as tribute and offering

53. (which) he brought, I received. I had compassion on him;
54. I granted his life. The heavy yoke
55. of my lordship I laid upon him for future days.
56. The broad land of Kummukh throughout its circuit
57. I conquered; under my feet I subdued.
58. In those days a tray of copper (and) a bowl
59. of copper, from the spoil and tribute
60. of Kummukh I dedicated to Asur my lord.
61. The sixty bronze plates along with their gods
62. I presented to Rimmon who loves me.

_________

63. Through the violence of my powerful weapons, which Assur the lord
64. gave for strength and heroism,
65. in thirty of my chariots that go at my side
66. my fleet steeds 1 (and) my soldiers,
67. who are strong 2 in destructive fight,
68. I took; against the country of Mildis, the powerful,
69. the disobedient, I marched. Mighty mountains,
70. an inaccessible district,
71. (where it was) good in my chariots (where it was) bad on my feet,
72. I crossed. At the mountain of Aruma,
73. a difficult district, which for the passage of my chariots
74. was not suited, I left the chariots,
75. I took the lead of my soldiers.
76. Like a lion (?) the obstacles (?) in the ravines of the inaccessible mountains
77. victoriously I crossed.
78. The land of Mildis like the flood 3 of the deluge I overwhelmed.
79. Their fighting men in the midst of battle
80. like a moon-stone I laid low. Their spoil
81. their goods (and) their property I carried away.

82. All their cities I burned with fire.
83. Hostages, tribute and offering
84. I imposed upon them.

_________

85. Tiglath-pileser, the hero, the warrior,
86. who opens the path of the mountains,
87. who subdues the disobedient, who sweeps away
88. all the overweening.

_________

89. The land of Subari, 1 the powerful, the disobedient,
90. I subdued. As for the countries of Alzi
91. and Purukuzzi, which had withheld
92. their tribute and their offering,
93. the heavy yoke of my lordship upon them
94. I laid; (saying), each year tribute and offering
95. to my city of Asur, to my presence,
96. let them bring. In accordance with my valour,
97. since Asur the lord has caused my hand to hold
98. the mighty weapon which subdues the disobedient, and
99. to enlarge the frontier of his country
100. has commanded (me), 4000 men of the Kaskâ 2
101. and of the Urumâ, 3 soldiers of the Hittites (Khattî),
102. disobedient ones, who in their strength

Footnotes
96:1 This must have been in the neighbourhood of Amid or Diarbekir. The Vannic king Menuas mentions a Hittite city, Surisidas, in the vicinity of Alzi. Delitzsch compares the Sareisa of Strabo.

96:2 Sutmasi. In R. 204. i. 22 sa sammasi is interpreted "a slinger," and in W.A.I., iv. 13, 5, samsû is "a sling-stone."

96:3 The land of Qurkhi extended eastward of Diarbekir, along the northern bank of the Tigris. The name is preserved in that of Kurkh, 20 miles S. E. of Diarbekir, where there are ruins, and where a stêlê of Shalmaneser II has been discovered.

97:1 Sarpina was the name of one of the Hittite cities, whose god was invoked in the treaty between Ramses II and the Hittite king. With the termination we may compare that of Abar-’siuni in iv. 82.

97:2 The first part of the name Sadi-anteru, which reminds us of the Lydian Sady-attês, may contain the name of the god Sanda or Sandon. A Hittite prince mentioned by the Vannic king Menuas was called Sada-hadas. Khattu-khi means "the Hittite," the suffix -khi, as in Vannic, denoting a patronymic or gentilic adjective. Urra-khi-nas is similarly derived from Urra, the termination -khi-nas, in Vannic, denoting "the place of the people of."

98:1 Literally " complete horses."

98:2 Liê.

98:3 Literally "mound" or "tel."

99:1 Subari, called Subarti a few lines farther on, had been overrun by Rimmon-nirari I. (B.C. 1330), and was afterwards conquered by Assur-natsir-pal, who describes it as situated between Qurkhi and Nirib, or the plain of Diarbekir. As Qurkhi lay "opposite the land of the Hittites," Subari would have adjoined the territory of the latter people, in the immediate vicinity of Alzi and Purukuzzi.

99:2 This seems to be the same word as the Kolkhians of classical geography, though the seat of the Kolkhians was far to the north of that of the Kaskâ. In the classical period, however, we find that the Moschi and Tibareni (Meshech and Tubal) had also shifted far to the north of their habitat in Assyrian times, and like the Kolkhians had settled on the shores of the Black Sea. A town of Kolkhis, now represented by the name of Lake Goldshik, lay to the S. W. of Palu.

99:3 Uruma may be the Urima of classical geography, the modern Urum. It is called Urume of Bitanu by Assur-natsir-pal, Bitanu being the district south of Lake Van.