i-Ninib and his army carried back with them
to Assyria not only the captive Babylonian king, but also the statue of
Marduk, the national god of Babylon. This they removed from B-sagila,
his sumptuous temple in Babylon, and they looted the sacred treasures
from the treasure-chambers, and carried them off together with the spoil
of the city.

Tukulti-Ninib no doubt left a sufficient proportion of his army in
Babylon to garrison the city and support the governors and officials
into whose charge he committed the administration of the land, but he
himself returned to Assyria with the rich spoil of the campaign, and
it was probably as a use for this large increase of wealth and material
that he decided to found another city which should bear his own name and
perpetuate it for future ages. The king records that he undertook this
task at the bidding of Bel (i.e. the god Ashur), who commanded that he
should found a new city and build a dwelling-place for him therein.
In accordance with the desire of Ashur and the gods, which was thus
conveyed to him, the king founded the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
he erected therein temples dedicated not only to Ashur, but also to the
gods Adad, and Sha-mash, and Ninib, and Nusku, and Nergal, and Imina-bi,
and the goddess Ishtar. The spoils from Babylon and the temple treasures
from E-sagila were doubtless used for the decoration of these temples
and the adornment of their shrines, and the king endowed the temples and
appointed regular offerings, which he ordained should be their property
for ever. He also built a sumptuous palace for his own abode when he
stayed in the city, which he constructed on a mound or terrace of earth,
faced with brick, and piled high above the level of the city. Finally,
he completed its fortification by the erection of a massive wall around
it, and the completion of this wall was the occasion on which his
memorial tablet was inscribed.

The memorial tablet was buried and bricked up within the actual
structure of the wall, in order that in future ages it might be read by
those who found it, and so it might preserve his name and fame. After
finishing the account of his building operations in the new city and
recording the completion of the city wall from its foundation to its
coping stone, the king makes an appeal to any future ruler who should
find it, in the following words: "In the days that are to come, when
this wall shall have grown old and shall have fallen