First Campaign Cylinder: Royal Titles

1 Sennacherib, great king, strong king, king of Assyria, unrivaled king,⁠a pious shepherd who reveres the great gods, guardian of truth who loves justice, provides help, goes to the aid of the weak, and strives after good deeds, perfect man, virile warrior, foremost of all rulers, the bridle that controls the unsubmissive, and the one who strikes enemies with lightning:

4 The god Aššur, the great mountain, granted to me unrivaled sovereignty and made my weapons greater than those of all who sit on royal daises.⁠b

War against Marduk-apla-iddina

5 At the beginning of my kingship, after I sat on the lordly throne and took command of the population of Assyria amid obedience and peace, Marduk-apla-iddina II, also known as Merodach-baladan, king of Karduniaš, Babylonia, an evil enemy, a rebel with a treacherous mind, an evildoer whose villainous acts are true, sought friendship with Šutur-Naḫundu, also known as Šutruk-Naḫḫunte II, an Elamite, by presenting him with gold, silver, and precious stones; then, he continuously requested reinforcements.

8 Šutur-Naḫundu sent to Marduk-apla-iddina’s assistance Imbappa, his field marshal, together with the massed body of his troops, Tannānu, his third man, ten unit commanders, including Nergal-nāṣir, a Sutian who is fearless in battle, 80,000 archers and lancers, and the 850 wagons and horses that were with them to the land of Sumer and Akkad.

10 Moreover, the evil Chaldean, evildoer, and offspring of murder gathered together Uruk, Larsa, Ur, Eridu, Kullaba, Kissik, and Nēmed-Laguda, the lands of the Bīt-Yakīn, Bīt-Amukkāni, Bīt-Ašillāni, also known as Bīt-Šillāni, Bīt-Saʾalli, and Bīt-Dakkūri, all of the Chaldeans, as many as there were; on the banks of the Tigris River, the Tuʾmūna, Riḫiḫu, Yadaqqu, Gibrê, and Maliḫu, also known as Malaḫu,; on the banks of the Surappu River, the Gurumu, Ubulu, Damunu, Gambulu, Hindaru, Ruʾuʾa, and Puqudu; on the banks of the Euphrates River, the Ḫamrānu, Ḫagarānu, Nabatu, and Liʾtaʾu — unsubmissive Arameans who did not know fear of death; Nippur, Dilbat, Marad, Kish, Ḫursagkalamma, Babylon, Borsippa, and Cutha, all of Karduniaš, Babylonia, and prepared them for battle.

16 When they reported Marduk-apla-iddina’s evil deeds to me, Sennacherib, the attentive man of the steppe, I became enraged like a lion and ordered a march into Babylon to confront him. Marduk-apla-iddina, the very image of an evil gallû-demon, heard about the advance of my expeditionary force, then he reinforced their companies with horses and Elamite, Aramean, and Chaldean archers, together with Nergal-nāṣir and ten unit commanders of the king of the land Elam who did not know fear of death, and the countless forces who were with them. He brought their contingents together in Cutha and had them keep watch at outposts for the approach of my expeditionary force.

19 I prepared my chariot horses. On the twentieth day of the month Šabāṭu XI, like a powerful wild ox, I took the lead of my troops from Baltil Aššur, but I did not wait for the main force of my army, nor did I wait for the rear guard. I sent my chief eunuch and my provincial governors to Kish ahead of me, saying: “Take the road to Marduk-apla-iddina II, also known as Merodach-baladan, but do not be careless about putting a strong watch on him!”

21 Marduk-apla-iddina saw my provincial governors, then came out of the Zababa Gate with all of his forces and did battle with my magnates in the plain of Kish. The enemy prevailed over my magnates in the thick of battle and my magnates were unable to withstand him. They sent their messenger to me in the plain of Cutha for help.

23 In my rage, I unleashed a fierce assault on Cutha, then I slaughtered the warriors surrounding its wall like sheep and took possession of the city. I brought out horses, the Elamite, Aramean, and Chaldean archers, the Elamite unit commanders, and Nergal-nāṣir, together with the guilty citizens, and I counted them among the captives and captured goods.

25 I became enraged like a lion and became furious like the Deluge. With my merciless warriors, I set out for Kish against Marduk-apla-iddina II, also known as Merodach-baladan,. Moreover, that evildoer saw the cloud of dust of my expeditionary force from far away and he became afraid. He abandoned all of his forces and fled to the land Guzummānu.

27 I defeated Tannānu, together with the Elamite, Chaldean, and Aramean troops who had stood by him and had come to his aid, and I scattered his forces. I captured alive Adīnu, a nephew of Marduk-apla-iddina II, also known as Merodach-baladan, together with Basqānu, a brother of Iatiʾe, queen of the Arabs, along with their troops. I seized the chariots, wagons, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, and Bactrian camels that he had abandoned during the battle.

30 With a joyful heart and a radiant face, I rushed to Babylon and entered the palace of Marduk-apla-iddina II, also known as Merodach-baladan, to take charge of the possessions and property there. I opened his treasury and brought out gold, silver, gold and silver utensils, precious stones, beds, armchairs, a processional carriage, royal ceremonial equipment of his with gold and silver mountings, all kinds of possessions and property without number, a substantial treasure, together with his wife, his palace women, female stewards, eunuchs, courtiers, attendants, male singers, female singers, palace servants who cheered up his princely mind, all of the craftsmen, as many as there were, and his palace attendants, and I counted them among the captives and captured goods.

34 I hurried after him to the land Guzummānu and ordered my warriors into the swamps and marshes. For five days they searched for him, but his hiding place could not be found. I gathered together the rest of his horses and troops, who were weary and who had fled like deer instead of going with him, from the open country and plain.

Cities Captured in Babylonia

36 In the course of my campaign, I surrounded, conquered, and plundered the cities Amatu, Ḫauae, Supapu, Nuqabu, Bīt-Sannabi, Quṭayyin, Qidrīna, Dūr-Ladini, Bitāti, and Bānītu, the land Guzummānu, the cities Dūr-Yanṣuri, Dūr-Abī-Yataʾ, Dūr-Rudumme, Bīt-Raḫê, Ḫapiša, Sadi-AN, Ḫurudu, Ṣaḫrina, Iltuk, Allallu, Marad, Yaqimuna, Kupruna, Bīt-Kudurri, Sūqa-Marusi, altogether 33 fortified cities, fortresses of the land of the Bīt-Dakkūri, together with 250 smaller settlements in their environs;

40 the cities Dūr-Appê, Dūr-Tanê, Dūr-Samaʾ, Sarrabātu, Ṣalaḫātu, Dūr-Abdāya, Sappi-ḫimari, Ṣibtu-ša-Makka-mê, altogether 8 fortified cities, fortresses of the land of the Bīt-Saʾalli, together with 120 smaller settlements in their environs;

42 the cities Sapīya, also known as Šapīya, Sarrabānu, Larak, Parak-māri, Bīt-Ilu-bāni, Aḫudu, Ālu-ša-Iṣṣur-Adad, Ālu-ša-ḫarratu, Manaḫḫu, Ālu-ša-amēlê, Dūr-Aqqīya, Nagītu, Nūr-abīnu, Ḫar-Ṣuarra, Dūr-Rukbi, Danda-Ḫulla, Dūr-Bir-Dada, Bīt-rēʾê, Dūr-Ugurri, Ḫindaina, Dūr-Uayit, Bīt-Taurâ, Sapḫuna, Buḫarru, Ḫarbat-Iddina, Ḫarbat-Kalbi, Šaparrê, Bīt-Bāni-ilūʾa, Sulādu, Bīt-Iltama-samaʾ, Bīt-Dīni-ili, Daqalu, Ḫamīṣa, Bēlā, Tairu, Kiprānu, Iltaratu, Aqqar-ša-Kīna, Sagabatu-ša-Mardukia, altogether 39 fortified cities of the land of the Bīt-Amukkāni, together with 350 smaller settlements in their environs;

48 and the cities Bīt-Zabīdāya, Larsa, Kullaba, Eridu, Kissik, Nēmed-Laguda, and Dūr-Yakīn, including the city Kār-Nabû, which is on the shore of the Bitter Sea, altogether 8 fortified cities, fortresses of the land of the Bīt-Yakīn, together with 100 smaller settlements in their environs;

50 the grand total is 88 fortified cities, fortresses of Chaldea, together with 820 smaller settlements in their environs.

51 I let my troops eat the grain and dates in their gardens and their crops in the countryside. I destroyed them, devastated them, and burned them with fire, and turned them into forgotten ruin hills.

52 I brought out the auxiliary forces of the Arameans and Chaldeans who were in Uruk, Nippur, Kish, and Ḫursagkalamma, together with the guilty citizens, and I counted them among the captives.

53 I let my army eat the grain and dates in their gardens, the fields they had labored in, and the crops in the countryside, which is their life’s necessity.

A New King in Babylon

54 I appointed over them Bēl-ibni, a son of a rab banî and a descendant of a family from Šuanna, Babylon, who had grown up like a young puppy in my palace, as king of the land of Sumer and Akkad.

55 On my return march, I defeated all together the Tuʾmūna, Riḫiḫu, Yadaqqu, Ubudu, Gibrê, Maliḫu, also known as Malaḫu, Gurumu, Ubulu, Damunu, Gambulu, Ḫindaru, Ruʾuʾa, Puqudu, Ḫamrānu, Ḫagarānu, Nabatu, and Liʾtaʾu, insubmissive Arameans and I plundered them.

57 In the course of my campaign, I received a substantial payment from Nabû-bēl-šumāti, the official in charge of the city Ḫararatu, also known as Ḫarutu,: gold, silver, large musukkannu-trees, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep and goats.

58 I put to the sword the population of the city Ḫirimmu, a dangerous enemy who since ancient times had not submitted to the kings, my ancestors, and I did not leave one alive. I reorganized that district and required forever one ox, ten sheep, ten homers of wine, and twenty homers of dates as his first-fruits offerings for the ginû-offerings to the gods of Assyria, my lords.

60 I returned safely to Assyria with 208,000 substantial captives, 7,200 horses and mules, 11,073 donkeys, 5,230 camels, 80,050 oxen, and 800,100 sheep and goats. This is apart from the people, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep and goats that all of my troops had carried away and appropriated for themselves.

62 Moreover, I put to the sword the soldiers of the enemy, a defiant force who had not submitted to my yoke, and hung their corpses on poles.

Praise of Nineveh

63 At that time, Nineveh, the exalted cult center, the city loved by the goddess Ištar in which all of the rituals for gods and goddesses are present; the enduring foundation and eternal base whose plan had been designed by the stars, literally “writing”, of the firmament and whose arrangement was revealed since ancient times; a sophisticated place and site of secret lore in which every kind of skilled craftsmanship, all of the rituals, and the secrets of the lalgar, the cosmic subterranean water, are understood;

Earlier Kings and the Palace

66 in which since ancient times earlier kings, my ancestors, before me ruled Assyria and ruled the subjects of the god Enlil, and in which every year, without interruption, they received an income unsurpassed in amount, the tribute of the rulers of the four quarters of the world;

68 but not one among them had paid attention to or shown interest in the palace inside it, the royal residence whose site had become too small; nor had anyone of them conceived of and focused on the straightening of the city’s streets and the widening of its squares, the dredging of the river, and the planting of orchards:

The Decision to Rebuild

70 As for me, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I became aware of the need to carry out this work by the will of the gods and I focused on it.⁠c I forcibly removed the people of Chaldea, Aramean tribes, the land of the Manneans, and the lands Que and Ḫilakku, who had not submitted to my yoke, then I made them carry baskets of earth and they made bricks. I cut down canebrakes in Chaldea and I had their splendid reeds hauled to Nineveh for the palace’s construction by enemy soldiers whom I had defeated.

Demolishing the Earlier Palace

73 Earlier kings, my ancestors, had constructed the former palace, whose longer side was thirty nindanu and whose shorter side was ten nindanu, but they had built it poorly. The Tebilti River had flowed alongside it since ancient times, eroded its foundations, and shaken its base.

75 I tore down that small palace in its entirety and improved the course of the Tebilti River and directed its outflow.

Building the New Palace

76 In a favorable month, on a favorable day, in the hidden depths of its subterranean waters I bonded together strong mountain stone sixty nindanu along its longer side and thirty-four nindanu along its shorter side, then I raised that area out of the water and converted it to dry land. In order to prevent its foundation from being weakened over the passage of time by cresting floods, I surrounded its damp course with large limestone slabs and in this way reinforced its base. On them, I filled in a terrace to a height of 160 courses of brick, then added it to the dimensions of the former palace and thus enlarged its structure.

79 I had a palace of elephant ivory, ebony, boxwood, musukkannu-wood, cedar, cypress, juniper, and terebinth, a palace that I named Egalzagdunutukua “The Palace Without a Rival”, constructed there as my royal residence.

80 I roofed the rooms of the palace with beams of cedar grown on Mount Amanus, which were brought with difficulty from that distant mountain terrain. I fastened bands of shining bronze on magnificent doors of cypress, whose scent is sweet on opening and closing, and I installed them in their gates.

82 For my lordly pleasure, I had a portico, a replica of a Hittite palace, which is called bīt-ḫilāni in the language of the land Amurru, constructed inside them.⁠d

Palace Statues and Reliefs

83 Eight striding lions, standing opposite one another, which were made from 11,400 talents of shining copper, cast by the god Ninagal, and were filled with radiance — on those lion colossi I installed two identical columns that were cast from 6,000 talents of bronze, together with two large cedar columns, and I positioned cross-beams on them as a cornice for their gates.

85 I expertly fashioned four mountain sheep colossi of silver and bronze, together with mountain sheep colossi of massive mountain stone, and in four directions I had them hold the gates’ suitable door bolts.

86 I engraved on large limestone slabs images of the enemy settlements that I had conquered. I surrounded the palace rooms’ lower courses with them and made them an object of wonder.

Gardens and Irrigation

87 I planted alongside the palace a botanical garden, a replica of Mount Amanus, which has all kinds of aromatic plants and fruit trees, with trees that are the mainstay of the mountains and Chaldea collected inside it.

88 To plant gardens, I subdivided the meadowland upstream of the city into plots of two pānu each for the citizens of Nineveh and I handed them over to them.

89 To make those planted areas grow abundantly, I cut with iron picks a canal straight through mountain and valley, from the border of the city Kisiri to the plain of Nineveh. I caused an inexhaustible supply of water to flow there for a distance of one and a half leagues from the Ḫusur River and made it gush through feeder canals into those gardens.

Dedicating the Palace

91 After I had finished the work on my lordly palace, broadened the squares, and brought light into the alleys and streets, making them as bright as day, I invited inside the palace the god Aššur, the great lord, and the gods and goddesses living in Assyria, then I made splendid offerings and presented my gifts.

Instructions for Future Kings

93 In the future, may one of the kings, my descendants, whom the god Aššur names for shepherding the land and people, renovate its deteriorated sections when that palace becomes old and deteriorated. May he find an inscribed object bearing my name, anoint it with oil, make an offering, and return it to its place. The god Aššur will then hear his prayers.

The Scribe’s Line Count

95 The line count of the inscription is 94 lines.