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

By A. H. Sayce

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Coloumn-VI

1. With their mighty armies
2. in the city and the mountains I contended furiously.
3. A destruction of them I made.
4. Their fighting men in the midst of the mountains
5. like a moon-stone I flung down. Their heads
6. like (that) of a sheep I cut off.
7. Their corpses over the valleys and high places of the mountains
8. I spread. The city itself I captured.
9. Their gods I carried away. Their goods (and) their property
10. I brought out. The city with fire I burned.
11. Three of their great fortresses, which of brickwork
12. were constructed, and the circuit of the city itself
13. I threw down (and) dug up; to mounds and ruins
14. I reduced (them), and salt (?) on the top of them
15. I sowed. A plate of bronze I made;
16. the conquest of the lands, which through Asur my god (and) my lord
17. I had conquered, that the site of this city should not (again) be taken,
18. nor its wall be constructed, upon (it)
19. I wrote. A house of brick on the top of it
20. I built: these plates of bronze
21. in the midst (of it) I placed.

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22. In the service of Asur my lord my chariots
23. and soldiers I took. The city of Kipsuna
24. their royal city I besieged. The Qumanians
25. feared the mighty, onset of my battle;
26. my feet they took; their lives I spared.
27. Its great wall and its gate-posts

28. of bricks I ordered to be destroyed, and
29. from their foundations to their coping
30. they were thrown down and turned into a mound;
3r. and 300 families of evil-doers
32. who (were) within it, who were not submissive to Asur my lord,
33. were removed (out of it). I received them. Their hostages
34. I took. Tribute and offering
35. above what was previously paid upon them
36. I imposed, and the widespread land of Qumanî
37. throughout its circuit under my feet
38. I subdued.

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39. In all, 42 countries and their kings
40. from the fords of the lower Zab
41. (and) the border of the distant mountains
42. to the fords of the Euphrates,
43. the land of the Hittites (Khattê) and the Upper Sea
44. of the setting sun, 1 from the beginning of my sovereignty
45. until my fifth year my hand has conquered.
46. One word in unison have I made them utter.
47. Their hostages have I taken. Tribute
48. and offering have I imposed upon them.

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49. I left the numerous roads of foreign peoples
50. which were not attached to my empire:
51. where the ground was favourable in my chariots, and where it was difficult
52. on my feet, after them
53. I marched. The feet of the enemy
54. I kept from my land.

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55. Tiglath-pileser the valiant hero,
56. the holder of the sceptre unrivalled
57. who completes the mission of the supreme (gods).

58. Uras and Nergal have given their forceful
59. weapons and their supreme bow
60. to the hands of my lordship.
61. Under the protection of Uras who loves me
62. from young wild bulls, powerful (and) large,
63. in the desert in the land of Mitâni
64. and in the city of Arazigi, 1 which (is) in front
65. of the land of the Hittites, with my mighty bow,
66. a lasso of iron and my pointed
67. spear, their lives I ended:
68. their hides (and) their horns
69. to my city of Asur I brought.

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70. Ten powerful male-elephants 2
71. in the land of Harran (Kharrani) and (on) the bank of the Khabur
72. I slew. Four elephants alive
73. I captured. Their hides
74. (and) their teeth along with the live
75. elephants I brought to my city Asur.

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76. Under the protection of Uras who loves me
77. 120 lions, with my stout heart,
78. in the conflict of my heroism
79. on my feet I slew;
80. and 800 lions in my chariot
81. with javelins (?) I slaughtered.
82. All the cattle of the field and the birds of heaven
83. that fly, among my rarities 3
84. I placed.

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85. After that the enemies of Asur throughout their territories

86. I had conquered, the temple of Istar of (the city) Assur
87. my lady, the temple of Rimmon, 1 (and) the temple of the Older Bel, 2
88. the temple of the Divinities, 3 the temples of the gods
89. of my city Asur, which were decayed, I built,
90. I completed. The entrances of their temples
91. I constructed. The great gods, my lords,
92. I introduced within;
93. I rejoiced the heart of their great divinity.
94. The palaces, the seat of sovereignty
95. belonging to the great fortresses
96. on the borders of my country, which from
97. the time of my fathers through long
98. years had been deserted and ruined and
99. were destroyed, I built (and) completed.
100. The castles of my country that were overthrown
101. I enclosed. The conduits 4 throughout all the land of Assyria
102. I fastened together wholly, and an accumulation
103. of grain in addition to that (collected) by my fathers
104. I brought back (and) heaped up.
105. Troops of horses, oxen (and) asses

Footnotes
112:1 That is, Lake Van.

113:1 Arazig is the Eragiza of Ptolemy, on the Euphrates, to the north of Balis and the south of Carchemish. Mitâni seems to be the Matenau of the Egyptians mentioned by Ramses III immediately before Carchemish.

113:2 I follow Lotz in this rendering.

113:3 Ni’siggi, borrowed from the Sumerian nin-’sig, "secret."

114:1 Here called Mâtu, "the god of the tempest."

114:2 Bel of Nipur, called Mul-lil, "the lord of the ghost-world," by the Accadians, and distinguished from Bel Merodach, the younger Bel of Babylon.

114:3 This apparently means that the images of several deities were collected together in the temple of the Older Bel.

114:4 Literally "sewers."