Babylonian and Assyrian Literature Part 44

[Footnote 1: "The stone foundation."]

x.x.x

In the service of Ashur my Lord, my chariots and warriors I a.s.sembled, and I approached Kapshuna, their capital city; the tribes of Comani would not engage in battle with me; they submitted to my yoke, and I spared their lives. The great castle of the city and its brick buildings I trampled under foot; from its foundations to its roofs I destroyed it and converted it into heaps and mounds, and a band of 300 fugitive heretics who did not acknowledge my Lord Ashur, and who were expelled from inside this _castle_, I took this band and condemned to the service of the G.o.ds, and I imposed upon the people tribute and offerings in excess of their former tribute; and the far-spreading country of Comani throughout its whole extent I reduced under my yoke.

x.x.xI

There fell into my hands altogether between the commencement of my reign and my fifth year 42 countries, with their kings, from beyond the river Zab, plain, forest, and mountain, to beyond the river Euphrates, the country of the Khatte[1] and the upper ocean of the setting sun. I brought them under one government; I placed them under the Magian religion, and I imposed on them tribute and offerings.

[Footnote 1: Hitt.i.tes.]

x.x.xII

I have omitted many hunting expeditions which were not connected with my warlike achievements. In pursuing after the game I traversed the easy tracts in my chariots, and the difficult tracts on foot. I demolished the wild animals throughout my territories.[1]

[Footnote 1: A very difficult paragraph.]

x.x.xIII

Tiglath-Pileser, the ill.u.s.trious warrior, he who holds the sceptre of Lashanan; he who has extirpated all wild animals.

x.x.xIV

The G.o.ds Hercules and Nergal gave their valiant servants and their _arrows_ as a glory to support my empire. Under the auspices of Hercules, my guardian deity, four wild bulls, strong and fierce, in the desert, in the country of Mitan, and in the city Arazik, belonging to the country of the Khatte,[1] with my long _arrows_ tipped with iron, and with heavy blows I took their lives. Their skins and their horns I brought to my city of Ashur.

[Footnote 1: Hitt.i.tes.]

x.x.xV

Ten large wild buffaloes in the country of Kharran, and the plains of the river Khabur, I slew. Four buffaloes I took alive; their skins and their horns, with the live buffaloes, I brought to my city of Ashur.

x.x.xVI

Under the auspices of my guardian deity Hercules, two _soss_ of lions fell before me. In the course of my progress on foot I slew them, and 800 lions in my chariots in my exploratory journeys I laid low. All the beasts of the field and the flying birds of heaven I made the victims of my shafts.[1]

[Footnote 1: A very doubtful sentence.]

x.x.xVII

From all the enemies of Ashur, the whole of them, I exacted _labor_. I made, and finished the repairs of, the temple of the G.o.ddess Astarte, my lady, and of the temple of Martu, and of Bel, and Il, and of the sacred buildings and _shrines_ of the G.o.ds belonging to my city of Ashur. I _purified_ their shrines, and set up inside the images of the great G.o.ds, my Lords. The royal palaces of all the great fortified cities throughout my dominions, which from the olden time our kings had neglected through long years, had become ruined. I repaired and finished them. The castles of my country, I filled up their _breaches_. I founded many new buildings throughout a.s.syria, and I opened out irrigation for corn in excess of what my fathers had done. I carried off the droves of the horses, cattle, and a.s.ses that I obtained, in the service of my Lord Ashur, from the subjugated countries which I rendered tributary, and the droves of the wild goats and ibexes, the wild sheep and the wild cattle which Ashur and Hercules, my guardian G.o.ds, incited me to chase in the depths of the forests, having taken them I drove them off, and I led away their young ones like the tame young goats. These little _wild animals_, the delight of their parents' hearts, in the fulness of my own heart, together with my own victims, I sacrificed to my Lord Ashur.

x.x.xVIII

The pine, the ...,[1] and the _algum tree_, these trees which under the former kings my ancestors, they had never planted, I took them from the countries which I had rendered tributary, and I planted them in the groves of my own territories, and I _bought_ fruit trees; whatever I did not find in my own country, I took and placed in the groves[2] of a.s.syria.

[Footnote 1: Lacuna.]

[Footnote 2: Or "orchards."]

x.x.xIX

I built chariots fitted to the yoke for the use of my people[1] in excess of those which had existed before. I added territories to a.s.syria, and I added populations to her population. I improved the condition of the people, and I obtained for them abundance and security.

[Footnote 1: Or "throughout my territories."]

XL

Tiglath-Pileser, the ill.u.s.trious prince, whom Ashur and Hercules have exalted to the utmost wishes of his heart; who has pursued after the enemies of Ashur, and has subjugated all the earth.

XLI

The son of Ashur-ris-ili, the powerful King, the subduer of foreign countries, he who has reduced all the lands of the Magian world.