Читать книгу Art of War - Sun-tzu - Страница 10
Antiquity to Christianisation of the Roman Empire
The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad
ОглавлениеSun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.
(Sun Tzu, Ch. 3, 1)
In reference to this most interesting stele of Naram-Sin we may here mention another inscription of this king, found quite recently at Susa and published only this year, which throws additional light on Naram-Sin’s allies and on the empire which he and his grandfather Sargon founded. The new inscription was engraved on the base of a diorite statue. From the inscription we learn that Naram-Sin was head of a confederation of nine chief allies, or vassal princes, and waged war on his enemies with their assistance. Among these nine allies of course the Princes of Sidurm Saluni and Lulubi are to be included. The new text further records that Naram-Sin made an expedition against Magan (the Sinaitic peninsula), and defeated Manium, the lord of that region, and that he cut blocks of stone and transported them to his city of Agade, where from one of them he made the statue on the base of which the text was inscribed. It was already known from the so-called “Omens of Sargon and Naram-Sin” that Naram-Sin had made an expedition to Sinai in the course of his reign and had conquered the king of the country. The new text gives contemporary confirmation of this assertion and furnishes us with additional information with regard to the name of the conquered ruler of Sinai and other details of the campaign.
(adapted from: History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery by L. W. King and H. R. Hall)
Relief sculpture from the walls of the Beit-el-Wali temple of Ramesses II, New Kalabsha. Relief, c. 2134–661 BCE.
Ramesses II on his chariot at the Battle of Kadesh, relief sculpture from walls of the Beit-el-Wali temple of Ramesses II, New Kalabsha. Relief, c. 2134–661 BCE.
