The fame of Adad-nirari was great, and his queen seems to have shared in it. She was named Sammu-ramat, “(the goddess) Sammu loveth (her),” a name which is generally regarded as the original of the somewhat mythical Semiramis of Herodotus. That she was looked up to by the subjects of her royal spouse, however, is proved by the two statues in the British Museum (there were in all four of them, erected at Calah). According to the inscription on them, they were made and dedicated for one of the chief officers of the kingdom, Bêl-tarṣi-îli-ma (“a lord before God”), who furnished them with the following dedication— “To Nebo, mighty, exalted, son of Ê-saggil,(92) the wise one, high-towering, the mighty prince, son of Nudimmud, whose word is supreme; prince of intelligence, director of the universe of heaven and earth, he who knoweth everything, the wide of ear, he who holdeth the tablet-reed (and) hath the stilus; the merciful one, he who decideth, with whom is (the power of) raising and abasing; the beloved of Ea, lord of lords, whose power hath no equal, without whom there would be no counsel in heaven; the gracious one, pitiful, whose sympathy is good; he who dwelleth in E-zida, which is within Calah—the great lord, his lord—for the life of Adad-nirari, king of the land of Aššur, his lord, and the life of Sammu-ramat, she of the palace, his lady, Bêl-tarṣi-îli-ma, ruler of the city of Calah, the land of Ḫamedu, the land of Sudgana, the land of Temeni, the land of Yaluna, for the saving of his life, the lengthening of his days, the adding of days to his years, the peace of his house and his people (not the one evil to him), he has caused (this statue) to be made as a gift. Whoever (cometh) after: Trust to Nebo—trust not another god.” It is rare that an Assyrian queen is mentioned in the inscriptions, especially on almost equal terms with the king, and additional interest is added by the fact, that she bears a name commonly regarded as the same as that of Semiramis. In Assyrian and Babylonian history, it is always the king who is the ruler, whatever influence his spouse may have had in determining his policy as such being always unmentioned, and therefore unknown to the world at large. The present inscription, however, seems to testify that Sammu-ramat was known outside the walls of the palace, and that one of the greatest in the kingdom thought fit to do her honour by associating her with the king in the dedication to Nebo which he made for the preservation of the lives of the king, the queen, and himself. Whether the history of Sammu-ramat, queen of Assyria, was laid under contribution to furnish details for the legend of Semiramis, will probably never be known; but it is nevertheless unfortunate that the slab recounting the warlike exploits of Adad-nirari, king of Assyria, her husband, should break off in the middle of his account of his successes in Babylonia.