Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/384

Rh collected a number of brick inscriptions together, and placed under them such portions of the inscriptions on seals and ' holy ' vases as he found to correspond. They are not, however, exactly alike, for in the latter two or more words are omitted from the middle of the sentence. The first legend contahis sixteen words and, according to Grotefend, it runs thus : ' (1) Icli erhebe (2) demUthigst (3) den grossen (4) Kcinig (o) Mithras (6) immerdar (7) mit Grosse (S) und mit Stiirke (9) an diesem (10) iiffentHchen Orte (11) Ja (12) ich erhe])e (13) diesen (14) grossen (15) Konig (10) Mithras.' The legend taken from the brick of Xebuchadnezzar (line 13) differs slightly from this. The name of the king or god is not the same (words 5 and 10); and the two words Mjflentlichen Orte,' 'j a,' aie also diflferent. At the end, a seventeenth word is added, signifying, as is supposed, 'sei gnadig.' Such was the last attempt at translation before the breaking of the new light. The meaning of this inscription is now known to be : '(words 1, 2, 3) Nabu-kudur-usur, (4) King (•")) of Babylon, (0-10) Kestorer of Bit-Saggatu and of Bit-Zida, (11) eldest son (12, 13, 14) of Xabu- pal-usur, (15) King (10) of Baljylon, (17) I.' ^

Lowenstern, in his ' 7&sai de D(V»hiffrement,' pub- lished in 1845, contributed little to the progress of the study. lie, however, boldly attempted to pass beyond the guidance of the Persepolitan inscriptions, and to deci])her two proper names in an inscription recently found at Khorsabad. The one he selected is engraved over a bas-relief and appears hi Botta (Plate 25). The subject evidently referred to the capture of a city, and Lowenstern learned from the Hebrew Scriptures that the Assyrians had only captured four important places. One of these was Asdod, w^hich was taken by Esar-

' JJeitnif/ej 1840, pi>. 5-7, and Plate. Of. Memint, Manuel^ p. 305.

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