Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 038
Written in modern English
Ashurbanipal, king of the world and king of Assyria, declares that the great gods granted him everything he desired. Paraded before him were the clothing, jewelry, and royal regalia of his treacherous brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn, along with Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's palace women, eunuchs, soldiers, a chariot, a processional carriage, his lordly vehicle, and every last item from his palace — plus the people of his household, men and women, young and old alike.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, who by the command of the great gods, achieved his heart’s desires: They paraded before [m]e clothing (and) jewelry, royal appurtenances of Šamaš-šu[ma-u]kīn — (my) unfaithful brother — his palace women, his [eun]uchs, his battle troops, a chariot, a processional carriage, [the ve]hicle of his lordly majesty, every necessity of his palace, as much as there was, (and) people — male and female, young (and) old.
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na-ku mAN.ŠÁR-DÙ-A MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI / šá ina qí-bit DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ ik-šu-du / ṣu-um-me-rat lìb-bi-šú lu-⸢bul-tú šu⸣-kut-tu / si-mat LUGAL-u-ti šá mdGIŠ.NU₁₁-⸢MU-GI⸣.NA / ŠEŠ NU GI.NA MUNUS.sek-re-te-šú LÚ.[šu-ut] ⸢SAG.MEŠ⸣-šú / LÚ.ERIM.MEŠ MÈ-šú GIŠ.GIGIR GIŠ.šá šad-da-⸢di⸣ [ru]-kub EN-ti-šú / mim-ma ḫi-šiḫ-ti É.GAL-šú ma-⸢la ba⸣-šu-ú / UN.MEŠ zik-ru u sin-niš ⸢TUR GAL⸣ / ú-še-et-ti-qu ina ⸢maḫ⸣-ri-⸢ia⸣
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003737.
Attribution
Image: Created by Jamie Novotny and Joshua Jeffers, 2015-18. Lemmatized by Jamie Novotny, 2015–16, for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/rinap/Q003737/..
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/Q003737/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.