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239 Figure 81 the Cimmerians who had been harassing the inhabitants of his country." The Assyrian king's interest in, and recording of, the dream of a foreign king was but a reflection of the extent of Assyr- ian beliefs in the power of dreams as a form of Divine En- counter. The epiphanies and oracles conveyed by _ royal dreams were a phenomenon eagerly sought after, and _ re- ported, by the kings of Assyria; the same held true for the kings of their neighbor and rival Babylonia. Ashurbanipal himself (686-626 B.C.), who kept extensive annals on baked clay prisms (as this one now in the Louvre Museum—Fig. 81), recorded several dream _ experiences; often they were by others rather than himself, just as was the case with King Gyges. In one instance it was a record of a priest who went to sleep and in the middle of the night "had a dream as follows: There was writing upon the pedestal of the god Sin; the god Nabu, scribe of the world, was reading the inscription again and again: 'Upon those who plot evil against Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, and resort to hostilities, I shall bring misera- ble death, I shall put an end to their lives with a quick iron Royal Dreams, Fateful Oracles