Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 074
Written in modern English
The opening columns are entirely lost. What survives picks up mid-dream: a divine voice instructs a foreign ruler to grasp the feet of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, and promises that his enemies will fall before him through Ashurbanipal's name alone. On the very day the ruler received this dream, he dispatched a mounted courier to inquire about Ashurbanipal's welfare, and then sent a separate messenger to report the dream's contents to the king directly. From the moment he pledged his loyalty to Ashurbanipal, he defeated the Cimmerians, who had been raiding and unsettling the people of his land — the account breaks off there.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(i 1) (No translation possible) (ii 1) (No translation possible) (ii 1') [...] ... [saying]: “Grasp [the feet of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria], and [conquer] your enemies [through the mention of his name.” On the (very) day] he saw [this dream, (ii 5´) he sent his mounted messenger to inqui]re about my well-being. [(As for) this dream that he had se]en, [he sent (a message about it) by the hands of a messenger of his and he r]eported (it) to me. (ii 8') [From the day that he grasped the feet of] my [royal majes]ty, he conquered [the Cimmerians, who were disturbing] the people of his land,…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Why it matters
Records a Lydian king's dream-oracle in which a deity commands him to grasp Ashurbanipal's feet, linking Assyrian royal power to Gyges of Lydia's campaigns against the Cimmerians — one of the few cuneiform texts to name a Lydian ruler.
Transliteration
[...] x x / [...] x x / x x x [...] / x x x [...] / x x x [...] / [...] x x (x) / [um-ma GÌR.II mAN.ŠÁR-DÙ-A MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR].⸢KI?⸣ ṣa-bat-ma / [ina zi-kir MU-šú ku-šu-ud] ⸢LÚ?.KÚR?.MEŠ?⸣-ka / [u₄-mu MÁŠ.GI₆ an-ni-tú] ⸢e-mu⸣-ru / [LÚ.rak-bu-šú iš-pu-ra a-na šá-ʾa]-al šul-mì-ia / [MÁŠ.GI₆ an-ni-tú šá e]-⸢mu⸣-ru / [ina ŠU.II LÚ.A KIN-šú iš-pur-am-ma ú]-⸢šá⸣-an-na-a ia-a-ti / [ul-tú ŠÀ u₄-me šá…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003773.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P395549). 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/Q003773/.
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