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

By A. H. Sayce

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Coloumn-V

1. Their spoil, their goods (and) their property
2. I carried away. Their cities with fire
3. I burned, I threw down (and) dug up,
4. I reduced to mounds and ruins.
5. Large troops of horses,
6. mules, calves, and the possessions
7. of their homesteads to a countless number
8. I brought back. All the kings
9. of the countries of Nairi alive my hand
10. captured. To those kings
11. I extended mercy, and
12. spared their lives. Their captivity
13. and their bondage in the presence of Samas my lord
14. I liberated, and an oath by my great
15. gods 1 unto future days for ever
16. and ever that they should be (my) servants I made them swear.
17. The children, the offspring of their kingdom,

18. as hostages I took.
19. Twelve hundred horses (and) 2000 oxen
20. I imposed upon them as tribute.
21. In their countries I left them.

_________

22. ’Siena king of Dayaeni,
23. who did not submit to Asur my lord,
24. captive and bound to my city
25. of Asur I brought; mercy
26. I extended to him, and from my city of Asur,
27. as the exalter of the great gods
28. unto exaltation, alive
29. I let him depart. The lands of Nairi,
30. far-extending, I subdued throughout their whole extent,
31. and all their kings
32. I reduced beneath my feet.

_________

33. In the course of the same campaign
34. against the city of Milidia, 1 of the country of Khani 2 the great,
35. violent (and) unsubmissive, I marched.
36. The mighty onset of my battle they feared.
37. My feet they took; I had mercy on them.
38. The city itself I did not capture; their hostages
39. I accepted. A homer by way of tax of lead
40. as an annual tribute
41. not to be intermitted I imposed upon them.

_________

42. Tiglath-pileser, the destroyer, the quick-moving,
43. the implacable, the deluge of battle.

_________

44. In the service of Asur my lord, my chariots
45. and warriors I took. In the desert

46. I made (my way). To the bank of the waters
47. of the land of the Armayans, 1 the enemies of Asur my lord,
48. I marched. From opposite to the land of ’Sukhi, 2
49. as far as the city of Gargamis, 3 of the land of the Hittites (Khatti),
50. in one day I plundered.
51. Their soldiers I slew. Their spoil,
52. their goods and their possessions
53. to a countless number I carried back.
54. The remains of their armies,
55. who before the powerful (weapons) of Asur my lord
56. had fled and had crossed the Euphrates,
57. after them in vessels of inflated (?) skins 4
58. I crossed the Euphrates;
59. six of their cities which (were) at the foot of Mount Bisri 5
60. I captured; with fire I burned,
61. I threw down (and) dug up. Their spoil, their goods
62. and their possessions to my city of Asur
63. I brought.

_________

64. Tiglath-pileser, the trampler upon the mighty,
65. the slaughterer of the unsubmissive, who weakens 6
66. utterly the strong.

_________

67. To conquer the land of Mu’sri 7 Asur the lord

68. urged me, and between the mountains of Elamuni
69. Tala and Kharu’sa I made (my way).
70. I conquered the land of Mu’sri throughout its circuit,
71. I massacred their warriors.
72. The cities I burned with fire, I threw down,
73. I dug up. The armies of the land of Qumanî
74. to the help of the land of Mu’sri
75. had gone. On a mountain with them
76. I fought. A destruction of them I made.
77. To a single city, Arini, at the foot of mount Ai’sa,
78. I drove and shut them up. My feet
79. they took. The city itself I spared.
80. Hostages, tribute and offering
81. I laid upon them.

_________

82. In those days all the land of Qumanî,
83. which had prepared to help Mu’sri,
84. gathered together all those countries, and
85. to make conflict and battle
86. were determined. With the violence of my powerful weapons,
87. with 20,000 of their numerous troops
88. on mount Tala I fought.
89. A destruction of them I made.
90. Their strong forces I broke through.
91. As far as mount Kharu’sa, which (is) in front of the land of Mu’sri,
92. I pursued their fugitives. The bodies
93. of their warriors in the ravines of the mountain
94. like a moon-stone I flung to the ground.
95. Their corpses over the valleys and the high places of the mountains
96. I spread. Their great fortresses
97. I captured, with fire I burned,

p. 111

98. I threw down (and) dug up, so that they became mounds and ruins.
99. Khunu’sa their fortified city
100. like the flood of the deluge I overwhelmed.

Footnotes
107:1 Literally "the bann (mamit) of my great gods."

108:1 The classical Melitênê, now Malatiyeh, on the Euphrates.

108:2 This district of Kappadokia is called "Khani the Great," to distinguish it from another Khani near Babylon, whose king Tukulti-mer, son of Ilu-saba, dedicated a bronze ram's head, now in the British Museum, to the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara.

109:1 The Arameans.

109:2 The Shuhites of the Old Testament, who extended along the western banks of the Euphrates from the mouth of the Khabour to above that of the Belikh. "Bildad the Shuhite" (Job ii. II) would be Bel-Dadda, Dadda, as we learn from the cuneiform inscriptions, being a form of Hadad, the Syrian name of the god of heaven.

109:3 Carchemish, the Hittite capital on the Euphrates, between the mouth of the Sajur and Birejik, now represented by the mounds of Jerablûs.

109:4 Sugase, borrowed from the Accadian ’su, "skin," and gavsia (whence the Semitic gubsu).

109:5 Now Tel-Basher.

109:6 Musarbibu, "subduer," according to M. Amiaud, who regards the word as an example of a parel conjugation (Revue d’Assyriologie, ii. 1, p. 12).

109:7 Mu’sri or Muzri lay to the north-east of Khorsabad, in the mountainous district now inhabited by the Missouri Kurds. The tribute of a p. 110 rhinoceros, yak, elephant, and apes, brought by its inhabitants to Shalmaneser II, must be explained on the supposition that the caravan road from the east passed through it.