against the one who sets aside the decrees of Nebuchadnezzar or defaces his monument. Ramman is thought to be more truly an Assyrian than a Babylonian god. He is almost as dear to the Assyrian as the god Ašur. Historical data, however, do not furnish very early mention of his name in Assyria. We find that he had a seat of worship in Damascus, and his cult had vogue in the plain of Jezreel, his name appearing in Hebrew, written by mistake, after the text was Masoretically vocalized, “Rimmon” which is exactly the same in form as the Hebrew word for pomegranate. In Assyria we can trace his history back to some extent by means of inscriptions in which his name appears as an element in the compound names of kings. For example, we find his name in the name of the ancient Assyrian king Šamaš-Ramman, and from an inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. we learn also that Šamaš-Ramman built a temple to the god Ramman. So we have historical evidence that the cult of Ramman is older in Assyria than this king, who was reigning in 1820 B. C. How much older it may be we do not know. Jastrow thinks that the cult is indigenous to Assyrian soil. Between the time of Šamaš-Ramman and the time of Tiglath-pileser I. the service of Ramman must have declined somewhat, for the temple of Ramman in the city of Aššur seems not to have been repaired from the days of Šamaš-Ramman till Tiglath-pileser himself rebuilt it. Tiglath-pileser says that from the time of the founding it was in decay six hundred and forty years. Then king Ašurdan tore it down entirely. Sixty years after the entire destruction, Tiglath-pileser builds the temple anew. He says that in the beginning of his government the great gods Anu and Adad demanded for him the restoration of their sacred dwelling. “I made bricks and cleared its ground until I reached the artificial flat terrace upon which the old temple had been built. I laid its foundation upon the solid rock and the whole place incased with bricks like a fire-place, overlaid on it a layer of fifty bricks in depth and built upon this the foundations of the temple of Anu and Adad of large square stones. I built it up from foundation to roof, larger and grander than before, and erected also two great temple towers ... fitting ornaments of their great divinities.”[25] From Tiglath-pileser on, temples of Ramman do not seem to be often mentioned, but the god himself is frequently spoken of in inscriptions of the kings. Sargon II. has one of the eastern gates of his temple named “Ramman the producer of abundance”. Ašurbânipal enumerates thirteen gods whom he honors as the great gods, and places Ramman fifth in the list.