Sargon II 041

(1) Palace of Sargon (II), appointee of the god Enlil, nešakku-priest of (the god) Aššur, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world), favorite of the great gods;

(2b) who (re)-established the šubarrû-privileges of (the cities) Sippar, Nippur, (and) Babylon, (and) protects the weak among them (lit.: “their weak ones”); who provides food for the destitute (and) made restitution for the wrongful damage suffered by them; who (re)established (5) the privileged status of (the city) Baltil (Aššur) that had lapsed, who abolished corvée duty for (the city) Dēr (and) gave relief to their weary people; (most) capable of all rulers, who extended his protection over the city Ḫarrān and recorded its exemption (from obligations) as if (its people were) people of the gods Anu (and) Dagān;

(8b) the king, who since the (first) day of his reign, has had no equal and has met no one who could overpower (him) in war or battle; (10) (who) smashed all (enemy) lands as if (they were) pots and put halters on (all) rebels in the four (quarters of the world); (who) set eunuchs of his as governors over them and imposed upon them (the same) tribute (and) payment(s) as if (they were) Assyrians.

(13b) With my wide knowledge and broad intelligence that the god Ea (and) the goddess Bēlet-ilī had made greater than those of the kings, my ancestors, (15) (and) in accordance with my heart’s desire, I built a city at the foot of Mount Muṣri, a mountain on the outskirts of Nineveh, and I named it Dūr-Šarrukīn.

(17) I had firmly-founded daises skillfully built inside it for the gods Ea, Sîn, Šamaš, Adad, and Ninurta.

(18b) I built a palace using (lit.: “of”) elephant ivory, ebony, boxwood, musukkannu-wood, cedar, cypress, daprānu-juniper, juniper, (and) terebinth (20) to be my royal residence; I fashioned a bīt ḫilāni, a replica of a Hittite palace, at their gates and roofed them with beams of cedar (and) cypress. I erected at their entrances animals made of shining stone in the image of creatures of the mountain and sea and installed doors of cypress (and) musukkannu-wood in their gates. I made its wall as secure as a mountain massif (25) and settled there people of the lands that I had conquered — as many as the god Šamaš shepherded.

(26b) The great gods who dwell in heaven (and) netherworld, and the gods who dwell in this city, have granted me the eternal (privilege of) building (this) city (and) growing old in it.