at Ashur by the German excavators. [Footnote: KTA. 51-55; 75;
MDOG. 20, 26 ff.; 22, 12 f.; 25, 33, 65; 26, 20 f.; 26, 41ff.; 28, 13,
49, 10 f. Weissbach, in Koldewey, _Die Tempel von Babylon_, 71.]




CHAPTER VII

ASHUR BANI APAL AND ASSYRIAN EDITING


The reign of Ashur bani apal (668-626), stands preeminent for the mass
of material available, and this has twice been collected. [Footnote:
G. Smith, _History of Assurbanipal_, 1871; S. A. Smith,
_Keilschrifttexte Asurbanipals_, 1887 ff.] Yet in spite of all
this, the greater number of the inscriptions for the reign are not
before us in adequate form, and there are problems which only a
renewed study of the originals can solve.

Once again we have the usual Annals as our main source. Earlier
scholars have in general satisfied themselves with the publication and
study of the latest edition, sometimes supplemented by more or less
full extracts from the others. There are reigns, such as that of
Sennacherib, where such procedure results in comparatively little
distortion of the history. But in no reign is the distortion of the
earlier statements more serious, indeed one can hardly recognize the
earlier documents in their later and "corrected" form. Accordingly, in
no reign is it more imperative that we should disentangle the various
sources and give the proper value to each. When we have discovered