Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 010
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) I, Ashurbanipal, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world), offspring of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, descendant of Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria — (i 9) The great gods in their assembly determined a favorable destiny as my lot (and) they glorified the mention of my name (and) made my lordship greater than (those of all other) kings who sit on (royal) daises. (i 14) I completed Eḫursaggalkurkurra, the temple of (the god) Aššur, my lord, (and) I clad its…
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/Q003709/
Why it matters
Ashurbanipal's titulature — king of Assyria, Babylon, Sumer, and Akkad simultaneously — encapsulates the ideological claim that one ruler could hold the entire Mesopotamian world-order, north and south, under a single divine mandate.
Transliteration
a-na-ku mAN.ŠÁR-DÙ-A LUGAL GAL-u1 / LUGAL dan-nu LUGAL ŠÚ LUGAL KUR AN.ŠÁR.⸢KI⸣ / LUGAL kib-rat LÍMMU-tim / È lìb-bi mAN.ŠÁR-PAP-AŠ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI / GÌR.NÍTA KÁ.DINGIR.RA.KI / LUGAL KUR EME.GI₇ ù URI.KI / ŠÀ.BAL.BAL md30-PAP.MEŠ-SU / LUGAL ŠÚ LUGAL KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI / DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ ina UKKIN-šú-nu2 / ši-mat SIG₅-tim i-ši-mu šim-ti / e-li LUGAL.MEŠ a-šib pa-rak-ki / zi-kir MU-ia ú-šar-ri-ḫu /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003709.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394013). 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/Q003709/.
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