The tyrant (?) Elamite destroyed the palace (?),
He subdued the princes of ... with the sword,
He carried off the spoil of all the temples.
He took their goods, and carried them away to Elam.
.... ruler, he destroyed the ruler (?),
.......... filled also the land.”
(The remainder is wanting.)
Apparently this is a poetical reproduction of the tablets of which translations have already been given. The enemy entered Babylon, according to the nine lines of the earlier portion of the inscription which are preserved, and spoiled and ravaged the place. The mention of the channel (îku, irrigation-channel) suggests a comparison with the first of the two historical fragments, where waters over Babylon and [pg 231] Ê-sagila are referred to, and cause one to ask whether Durmaḫ-îlāni and Tudḫula were not the lieutenants of Kudur-laḫgumal.
The description of the conditions under which the entry into Babylon was effected, when the god (possibly Ennundagalla) was clothed with light, flashed like lightning and shook the holy places, suggests that a severe thunderstorm acted on the superstitious hopes of the Babylonians, and the equally superstitious fears of their foes, so much so, that the Elamite did not carry out his intention of carrying away the crowns of the statue of the god. He seems, however, to have taken and retained possession of the place, and to have continued to extend his operations.
The reverse apparently states why all these misfortunes came, and what further happened. It was because they accepted a foreign ruler (he spoke peace to the city, and thereby became its master); because there was denial of righteousness or justice (righteousness was absent?); because the magicians repeated evil words. Even in the temple of Anu at Erech (the shrine called Ê-anna, “the temple of heaven,” or “of Anu”) the god of heaven was displeased, and caused something very like an earthquake. Some, however, were found who were willing to try to bar the passage of the conqueror, who had gathered the Umman-manda (barbarian hordes), possibly his followers and those of Tudḫula or Tidal, against the people (?) of Bêl (the Babylonians), and laid everything in ruins.