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

By A. H. Sayce

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Coloumn-VII

1. which in the service of Asur my lord
2. in the countries which I had conquered,
3. as the acquisition of my hands
4. which I took, I collected together, and troops .
5. of goats, fallow-deer, wild sheep,
6. (and) antelopes which Asur and Uras
7. the gods who love me have given
8. for hunting, in the midst of the lofty

9. mountains I have taken;
10. their herds I enclosed,
11. their number like that of a flock
12. of sheep I counted:
13. young lambs, the offspring
14. of their heart, according to the desire of my heart,
15. along with my pure sacrifices
16. annually I sacrificed to Asur my lord.

_________

17. The cedar, the likkarin tree
18. (and) the allakan tree from the countries
19. which I had conquered, these trees
20. which among the kings
21. my fathers who (were) before (me) none
22. had planted, I took and
23. in the plantations of my country
24. I planted, and the costly fruit
25. of the plantation, which did not exist in my country,
26. I took. The plantations of Assyria
27. I established.

_________

28. Chariots (and horses) bound to the yoke,
29. for the mightiness of my country, more than before
30. I introduced (and) harnessed.
31. To the land of Asur (I added) land,
32. to its people I added people.
33. The health of my people I improved.
34. A peaceable habitation
35. I caused them to inhabit.

_________

36. Tiglath-pileser, the great, the supreme,
37. whom Asur and Uras according to the desire
38. of his heart conduct, so that
39. after the enemies of Asur
40. he has overrun all their territories, and
41. has utterly slaughtered the overweening.

42. The son of Asur-ris-ilim, 1 the powerful king, the conqueror
43. of hostile lands, the subjugator
44. of all the mighty.

_________

45. The grandson of Mutaggil-Nu’sku, whom Asur the great lord
46. in the conjuration of his steadfast heart
47. had required, and to the shepherding
48. of the land of Asur had raised securely.

_________

49. The true son of Asur-da’an,
50. the upraiser of the illustrious sceptre, who ruled
51. the people of Bel, 2 who the work of his hands
52. and the gift of his sacrifice
53. commended to the great gods, so that
54. he arrived at gray hairs and old age.

_________

55. The descendant of Uras-pileser,
56. the guardian (?) king, the favourite of Asur,
57. whose might 3 like a sling
58. was spread over his country, and
59. the armies of Asur he shepherded faithfully.

_________

60. In those days the temple of Anu and Rimmon
61. the great gods, my lords,

62. which in former times Samas-Rimmon, the high-priest 1 of Asur,
63. the son of Isme-Dagon, the high-priest also of Asur,
64. built, for 641 years
65. went on decaying,—
66. Asur-da’an the king of Asur,
67. the son of Uras-pileser, the king also of Asur,
68. pulled down this temple (but) did not rebuild (it);
69. for 60 years its foundations
70. were not laid.

_________

71. At the beginning of my reign, Anu
72. and Rimmon the great gods, my lords,
73. who love my priesthood (’sanguti),
74. commanded the rebuilding
75. of their habitation. I made bricks;
76. I purified its site;
77. I undertook its reconstruction; 2 its foundations
78. I laid upon the mass of a huge mound.
79. This place throughout its circuit
80. I piled up with bricks like a double fold (?).
81. Fifty tibki 3 below
82. I sunk (it); upon it
83. the foundations of the temple of Anu and Rimmon
84. I laid with pulu-stone. 4
85. From its foundations to its roof
86. I built (the temple); greater than (it was) before I reared (it).
87. Two great towers
88. which for the glorification of their great divinities
89. were adapted, I constructed.

90. The illustrious temple, a building with cornices, 1
91. the seat of their rejoicing,
92. the habitation of their pleasure,
93. which has been beautified like the star(s) of heaven,
94. and by the art of the workmen
95. has been richly carved,
96. I have worked at, have toiled over, have built
97. (and) have completed. Its interior
98. I compacted together like the heart of heaven;
99. its walls like the resplendence
100. of the rising of the stars I adorned.
101. I strengthened its buttresses,
102. and its towers to heaven
103. I lifted; and its roof
104. I fastened together with brickwork.
105. The divining rod, 2
106. the oracle of their great
107. divinities within it
108. I placed.
109. Anu and Rimmon, the great gods
110. I introduced within (it);
111. on their thrones supreme
112. I seated them;
113. and the heart of their great divinities
114. I gladdened.

Footnotes
116:1 Sir H. Rawlinson has suggested that Asur-ris-ilim is the Chushan-rish-athaim of Judges iii. 8, a name which certainly seems to be corrupt. Chushan-rish-athaim is called king of Aram Naharaim or "Aram of the two rivers," which represents Mesopotamia in the Old Testament, though the Naharaina of the Egyptian monuments was the region about the Orontes, while the Assyrian Nahri or Nairi was primarily the district to the northwest of Lake Van, and afterwards the country to the south of it. Assur-ris-ilim claims to have "subdued Lullumi and all Quti (or Kurdistan) with the entrance to its mountain-ranges" (W.A.I., iii. 3, 18); but these districts lay to the east of Assyria, and no allusion is made to any campaign in the west.

116:2 That is, the Babylonians.

116:3 Literally "fulness" (nubalu, akin to nabli, in the Cuthean Legend of the Creation, iv. 20).

117:1 Pate’si.

117:2 Literally "I took its strength" (read dannat-su, not libnat-su).

117:3 The tibku was a measure of length which is explained in the Talmud as the longer cubit of 7 palms mentioned in 2 Chr. iii. 3.

117:4 Prof. D. H. Müller believes the pulu-stone to have been brought from Armenia, and to have derived its name from the Vannic pulu-’si, "engraved." It is also called pili-stone. It was a species of white marble.

118:1 Qusuda. In W.A.I., V. 28, 4, gasdu is the synonym of allum, the Aramaic êlâ.

118:2 Elallâ. It seems to have been a stem of papyrus covered with writing.