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Records of the Past, 2nd Series, Vol. IV , ed. by A.H. Sayce, [1890], at sacred-texts.com
Shalmaneser, or more correctly Shulmanu-asharidu II, reigned from 860 to 824 B.C. He was the worthy successor of his father Assur-natsir-pal. The number of his years was equal to the number of his wars. His dominion ended by extending westward as far as Lebanon and the Mediterranean, northward over the countries of Ararat, eastward beyond the oriental sea of Nairi, or Lake Urumiyeh, southward to the left bank of the Euphrates as far as Babylon and the whole of Chaldæa.
Of other labours besides wars, history has preserved the memory only of the restoration of the walls of Calah (Layard's Inscriptions, 76), and the construction (or attempt at construction) of a temple to the Moon-god Sin at Haran (W. A. I., v. 64, col. ii. 4).
The principal inscriptions of Shalmaneser are those on an obelisk of black marble, on a monolith from Kurkh, and on the bronze gates of the temple of Balawât. They are all now in the British Museum.
The obelisk was found at Kouyunjik. Besides the chief inscription, it has bas-reliefs with epigraphs attached. The text is published in Layard's Inscriptions, 87–98. It has been translated by Oppert (in his Histoire des Empires de Chaldée et d’Assyrie), Ménant (Annales des Rois d’Assyrie), Sayce (Records of the Past, v. 1st series), and Winckler (Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, i.)
The monolith comes from Kurkh. The text has been published in W. A. I., iii. 7, 8, and has been translated by Sayce (Records of the Past, iii. 1st series), Ménant (Annales), Craig (Hebraica, iii. 1887), and Peiser (Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, i.)
The inscription on the gates of Balawât was discovered by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam in 1877, and has been published and translated by Mr. Pinches in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, vii. pp. 83 sqq.
A complete edition of the inscriptions of Shalmaneser II has been published by Amiaud and Scheil. It serves as the basis of the following translations.