Chapter 25

54 With the help of Assur, may the King who has built these palaces, attain an old age, and may his offspring multiply greatly! May these battlements last to the most remote future! May he who dwells there come forth surrounded with the greatest splendor; may he rejoice in his corporal health, in the satisfaction of his heart accomplish his wishes, attain his end, and may he render his magnificence seven times more imposing!

[Footnote 1: Orchoé, the Erech of the Bible, is certainly the Warka of the present day; Sippara, Sofeira; Nipur, Niffar; Larsam, Senkereh. Ur (the Ur of the Bible) is Mugheir; Kullab and Erikhi are unknown. (See "Expéd. en Mésopot.," i. p. 255 et seq.)]

[Footnote 2: The old empire Bal-bat-ki. The syllabaries explain this ideogram by "Assur," but it is very awkward that in these texts the identification with Assur occurs nowhere. I therefore transcribe "Sumer," which was the true name of the people and the language named wrongly Accadian. The term of "Sumerian" is supported by MM. Ménant, Eneberg, Gelzer, Prætorius, Delitzsch, Olshausen, and other scholars.]

[Footnote 3: "Itanus," or Yatnan, in the island of Crete, became afterward the name of the island of Cyprus.]

[Footnote 4: For the words in italics no satisfactory translation has as yet been found.]

[Footnote 5: The "Pekod" of the Bible (Jer. i. 21; Ezek. xxiii. 23).]

[Footnote 6: Which belongs to Elam.]

[Footnote 7: Lower Chaldea. Nearly all the names of the Elamite towns are Semitic (see Gen. x. 22), but the Susian ones are not.]

[Footnote 8: Tiglatpileser, whom Sargon would not acknowledge.]

[Footnote 9: This is the word "siltan," the Hebrew "shilton" ("power"), the Arabic "sultan."]

[Footnote 10: Raphia, near the frontier of Egypt.]

[Footnote 11: Khilakku. It seems to be identical with the "Sparda" of Persian, the "Sepharad" of Obadiah.]

[Footnote 12: The condition of Jaubid before his accession.]

[Footnote 13: Or Minni.]

[Footnote 14: It seems not to be Paphos.]

[Footnote 15: Parthia(?).]

[Footnote 16: The same name as Belshazzar.]

[Footnote 17: This Agag is very possibly the country of Haman the Agagite, if we must not read Agaz.]

[Footnote 18: Ambanda is perhaps the Median "Kampanda."]

[Footnote 19: We find in the inscriptions of Van, the god Haldi as god of the Armenians, which proves more forcibly than ever that the syllabary of the Armenian inscriptions is the same as the Assyrian syllabary.]

[Footnote 20: See Isaiah xx. 1.]

[Footnote 21: Meluhhi is not Méroe, but Libya, and especially the Marmarica. The name seems to be the "Milyes" of Herodotus.]

[Footnote 22: "Asdudim" seems to be a Hebraic plural.]

[Footnote 23: Meluhhi. This is the only passage where small gaps occur.]

[Footnote 24: This is one of the most important passages of the text; the period is the Chaldean eclipse period of 1,805 years, and ended in 712 B.C. Instead of this passage, the stele of Larnaca, now in Berlin, has, "from the remotest times, the beginning of Assyria, until now." The commencement of the period, 2517 B.C., coincided very nearly with the capture of Babylon by the Medes. This date commences the real history; previous to this time reigned the 86 princes during twelve lunar periods of 1,805, and twelve solar periods of 1,460 years, viz., 39,180 years. The very event may have happened eleven years afterward, 2506 B.C. The Deluge happened, according to the Chaldeans, in 41697 B.C.]

[Footnote 25: This royal name is still found in the Armenian texts of Van.]

[Footnote 26: The inscriptions of this prince are translated in the seventh volume.]

[Footnote 27: Elam. We are now certain of this identification.]

[Footnote 28: The same who occurs in the Ptolemaic canon (721-709).]

[Footnote 29: From 721 to 709 B.C.]

[Footnote 30: 32 m. 91 cm., 39 yds.]

[Footnote 31: 54 m. 85 cm., 65 yds.]

[Footnote 32: 4 m. 94 cm., 17-1/2 ft.]

[Footnote 33: Unexplained.]

[Footnote 34: "Timin," not "cylinder."]

[Footnote 35: Only two years after the commencement of the war.]

[Footnote 36: 12,544. pd. troy 68.]

[Footnote 37: 152,227. pd. troy, 75. A royal silver drachm is nearly 3s., a royal mina £9; the state drachm and mina is the half of it. A silver talent is always very close to £270 sterling.]

[Footnote 38: Sargon speaks of his third "year" and not of his third campaign, in order to mark what he had already accomplished before the year 717.]

[Footnote 39: One hundred and ten English miles.]

[Footnote 40: This is the second passage where Sargon alludes to this period ending under his reign.]

[Footnote 41: "Karduniyas."]

[Footnote 42: Or "Dur-Sarkayan." The King passes rapidly over some other peculiarities which he inserts in other texts, namely, the measures of the town, and the ceremonies of its edification. The circuit is given as containing 3-1/3 ners (miles) 1 stadium 3 canes 2 spans, or 24,740 spans, and Botta's measurings afford 6,790 metres (7,427 yds.). This statement gives for the span, with a slight correction in the fourth decimal, 27,425 cm. (10.797 ins., and for the cubit 5,485 cm. 21.594 ins.).]

[Transcriber's Note: Above, the author seems to be using the European decimal point ",", in the metric measurements, and the American decimal point in the Imperial measurements, ".".]

[Footnote 43: At this time the palace of Nineveh was still in ruins. It was rebuilt by Sennacherib.]

[Footnote 44: This is my former transcription of the divine name which is now pronounced Hea. But I think sincerely that the latter is not better than the former one.]

[Footnote 45: This assimilation is not quite certain.]

[Footnote 46: One thousand ten talents 602 cwt. English.]

[Footnote 47: Obscure.]

[Footnote 48: A very difficult passage; the name of the god Nergal does not interfere with the object.]

[Footnote 49: The Hebrew "Astaroth," which signifies "goddesses." Compare Judges x. 6.]

[Footnote 50: Obscure.]

[Footnote 51: It is not clear what animals are meant.]

End of Project Gutenberg's Babylonian and Assyrian Literature, by Anonymous