[1561] Rassam Cylinder, col. i. ll. 11, 12.
[1562] See pp. [105] and [173] seq.
[1563] The readings Suni-gar and Shum-gar (so Jensen, Keils Bibl. ii. 155) are also possible.
[1564] IVR. 32, 49b, where the 20th day of the intercalated Elul is so designated. An official—'the great Si-gar'—is mentioned in a list,—IIR. 31, no. 5, 33a.
[1565] See the discussion (and passages) in Lehmann's Shamash-shumukin, pp. 43 seq. One is tempted to conclude that Marduk's statue was removed to Nineveh, not in a spirit of vandalism, but in order to enable Assyrian kings to 'seize the hands of Bel' without proceeding to E-Sagila. The Babylonians, no doubt, were offended by such an act, and in order to conciliate them, Ashurbanabal, who pursues a mild policy towards the south, orders the statue to be restored at the time that he appoints his brother Shamash-shumukin as governor of the southern provinces.
[1566] Ib. p. 53, note.
[1567] Ashurnasirbal's Inscription, IR. 23, col. ii. l. 134.
[1569] Rassam Cylinder, col. viii. ll. 96-100.
[1570] George Smith, The History of Ashurbanipal, p. 126 (Cylinder B, col. v. l. 77). See also Rassam Cylinder, col. iii. l. 32.