chronicle of early kings

7/27/2019 Chronicle of early kings

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Chronicle of

early kings (ABC 20)

Fragment of an Akkadian victory stela (Louvre)

The Chronicle of early kings (ABC 20) is ahistoriographical text from ancient

Babylonia. Although it purports to offerinformation about the oldest period and theOld-Babylonian empire, it was probablywritten much later. One anachronism is thereference to Babylon during the reign ofking Sargon of Akkad. However, in outline,much information is more or less correct.The last seven lines of tabletA are identicalto the beginning of tablet B, so we can beconfident that we have a more or lesscomplete text. Related subject matter canbe found in chronicle CM 41.

For a very brief introduction to the l iterarygenre of chronicles, go here. The translationon this webpage was adapted from A.K.Grayson,Assyrian and BabylonianChronicles (1975) and Jean-JacquesGlassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles(Atlanta, 2004).

Translation of tablet A

1 Sargon, king of Agade, came to powerduring the reign of Itar [1] and

2 he had neither rival not equal. Hissplendor, over the lands

3 it diffused. He crossed the sea in theeast.

4 In the eleventh year he conquered thewestern land to its farthest point.

5 He brought it under one authority. He setup his statues there

6 and ferried the west's booty across on

barges.7 He stationed his court officials atintervals of five double hours and

8 ruled in unity the tribes of the lands.

9 He marched to Kazallu and turnedKazallu into a ruin heap,

10 so that there was not even a perch for abird left.

11 Afterwards, in his old age, all of thelands rebelled again and

12 surrounded him in Agade. Sargon wentout to fight and brought about their defeat.

13 He overthrew them and overpoweredtheir extensive army.

14 Afterwards, Subartu attacked Sargon infull force and called him to arms.
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15 Sargon set an ambush and completelydefeated them.

16 He overpowered their extensive army

17 and sent their possessions into Akkad.

18 He dug up the dirt of the pit ofBabylonand

19 made a counterpart of Babylon next toAgade.

20 Because the wrong he had done [2] thegreat lord Marduk became angry andwiped out his family by famine.

21From east to west[22], the subjectsrebelled against him

23 and Marduk afflicted him with insomnia.

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24 Naram-Sin,[3] son of Sargon, marchedto Apial.

25 He made a breach in the city wall and

Ri-Adad26 he captured, the king of Apial, and thevizier of Apial.

27 He marched to Magan and capturedMannu-dannu, king of Magan.

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28 ulgi,[4] the son of Ur-Nammu,provided abundant food for Eridu, which ison the seashore.

29 But he had criminal tendencies and theproperty ofEsagila and Babylon

30 he took away as booty. Bl causedcaused [...] to consume his body and killedhim.

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31 Irra-imitti,[5] the king, installed[32] Enlil-bani, the gardener,

32 as substitute king [6] on his throne.

33 He placed the royal tiara on his head.

34 Irra-imitti died in his palace when hesipped a hot soup.

35 Enlil-bani, who occupied the throne, didnot give it up and

36 so he was sovereign.

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37 Ilu-umma was king ofAssyria at thetime of Su-abu.

38 Battles.

Translation of tablet B

Obverse1-7 Identical to tablet A 31-36.

8 Hammurabi,[7] king of Babylon,mustered his army and

9 marched against Rim-Sin [I], king of Ur.
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10 Hammurabi captured Ur and Larsa and

11 took their property to Babylon.

12 He brought Rim-Sin in a ki-is-kap toBabylon.

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13 Samsu-iluna,[8] king of Babylon, son ofHammurabi, the king

14 [...] he mustered and

15 [...] Rim-Sin [II] marched to [...]

16 [...] he captured and

17 [...] in good health in his palace

18 [...] he went and surrounded [...]

19 [...] his people [...]

20 [...]

Lacuna

Reverse

Lacuna

1' [...]2' [...] Iluma-ilu [...]

3' [...] he made [...]

4' he did battle against them [...]

5' their corpses [..] in the sea [...]

6' he repeated and Samsu-iluna [...]

7' Iluma-ilu attacked and brought about thedefeat of his army.

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8' Abi-euh,[9] son of Samsu-iluna, set outto conquer Iluma-ilu.9' He decided to dam the Tigris.

10' He dammed the Tigris but did notcapture Iluma-ilu.

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11' At the time of Samsuditana [10] theHittites marched againstAkkad.

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12' Ea-gamil,[11] the king of the Sealand,fled to Elam.

13' After he had gone, Ulam-Buria,brother of Katiliau, the Kassite,

14' mustered an army and conquered theSealand. He was master of the land.

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15' Agum, the son of Katiliau, musteredhis army and

16' marched to the Sealand.

17' He seized Dur-Enlil and

18' destroyed Egalgaena, Enlil's temple

in Dur-Enlil.------------------------------------------

Note 1:According to the Middle chronology, Sargonruled from 2334 to 2279. His eleventh year
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would be 2323 BCE. He was the founder ofthe dynasty of Akkad.

Note 2:I.e., building a rival to Babylon.

Note 3:According to the Middle Chronology,Naram-Sin ruled from 2254 to 2218.

Note 4:According to the Middle Chronology, ulgiruled from 2094 to 2047. He was the secondking of the Third Dynasty of Ur.

Note 5:According to the Middle Chronology, Irra-Imitti, king of Isin, ruled from 1868 to 1861.His successor Enlil-bani occupied thethrone in 1860-1837. This story is also toldin CM 41, tablet B.

Note 6:Substitute kings were appointed when evilomens predicted the death of a king. Irra-imitti's sin may have been that he stayed inthe palace.

Note 7:According to the Middle Chronology, theBabylonian king Hammurabi ruled from1792 to 1750. Rim-Sin of Larsa wasdefeated in 1762, after a reign that hadstarted in 1822 (!).

Note 8:Samsu-iluna ruled from 1749 to 1712,according to the Middle Chronology.

Note 9:Abi-euh ruled, according to the MiddleChronology, from 1711 to 1696. The storyabout the damming of the Tigris is also toldin CM 41, tablet B.

Note 10:Samsu-ditana became king in 1625 (MiddleChronology) and Babylon was sacked in1595.

Note 11:Last king of the Sealand Dynasty. Dating isimpossible.
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chronicle of early kings

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