Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 134
Translation · reference
High confidence(1') (No translation possible) (9') [...] my [lordly maj]esty [... (Šamaš-šuma-ukīn) who]m [I had installed] as king of Babylo<n> [...] who altered [the peace (between us) ...] did battle [wi]th me [...] they consigned him [to a conflagrat]ion and destroyed his life. (14') [(As for) the soldiers who had perpetrated sedition and rebelli]on, as many as had made common cause with him, [not a single one (of them)] escaped; (anyone) who tried to get away did not escape my grasp. (16') I carr[ied] off to Assyria [a chariot], the vehicle of his lordly majesty, the scepter held in his hand[s], (and)…
Source: Novotny, J. & Jeffers, J. 2018–. The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC) and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria. RINAP 5. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q007542/
Why it matters
Records Ashurbanipal's account of his brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's death in the flames of Babylon (648 BCE) and the seizure of his royal regalia — one of the few first-person Assyrian narratives of the brutal end to the great fraternal civil war.
Transliteration
[...] x / [...] x ŠÚ? / [...] U? / [...] x / [...] ŠÚ? / [...]-⸢ma?⸣ / [...]-⸢ia?⸣ / [...] x-šú / [...] ⸢EN?⸣-u-ti / [... áš-ku-nu]-⸢uš⸣ a-na LUGAL-u-ti KÁ.DINGIR.<RA.KI> / [...] ú-nak-ki-ru / [...] ⸢it?⸣-ti-ia e-pu-šá ta-ḫa-zu / [... ina mi-qit d]⸢GIŠ⸣.BAR id-du-šu-ma ú-ḫal-li-qu nap-⸢šat⸣-su / [LÚ.ERIM.MEŠ e-piš si-ḫi u bar]-⸢ti⸣ ma-la it-ti-šú šak-nu / [e-du ul] ⸢ip-par-šid mul⸣-taḫ-ṭu ul ú-ṣi…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q007542.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P426439). source
Translation excerpted from Novotny, J. & Jeffers, J. 2018–. The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC) and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria. RINAP 5. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q007542/.
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