[65] J. Ménant, Inscriptions de Hammourabi, Roi de Babylone; 1863, Paris. These inscriptions are the oldest documents in phonetic character that have come down to us. See Oppert, Expédition scientifique, vol. i. p. 267.
[66] Ker Porter, Travels in Georgia, Persia, etc., 4to., vol. ii. p. 390. Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 535. "Alexander, after he had transferred the seat of his empire to the east, so fully understood the importance of these great works that he ordered them to be cleansed and repaired and superintended the work in person, steering his boat with his own hands through the channels."
[67] This palace was the one called the North-western Palace.
[68] Layard, The Monuments of Nineveh, from Drawings made on the spot, Illustrated in one Hundred Plates (large folio, London: 1849), plates 53-56.
[69] It is now called the Central Palace at Nimroud.
[70] The chief work upon this period, the most brilliant and the best known in Assyrian history, is the Faites de Sargon of MM. Oppert and Ménant (Paris: 1865).
[71] The palace occupied the whole of the south-western angle of the mound.
[72] Maspero (Histoire ancienne, p. 431) refers us to the authors by whom the inscription, in which these relations between the kings of Lydia and Assyria are recounted, was translated and explained. The chief of these is George Smith, who, in his History of Assurbanipal, has brought together and commented upon the different texts from which we learn the facts of this brilliant reign. The early death of this young scholar can never be too much regretted. In spite of his comparative youth he added much to our knowledge of Assyria, and, moreover, to him belongs the credit of having recognized the true character of the Cypriot alphabet.
[73] Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies, vol. ii. p. 196.
[74] The Northern Palace.