Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 059
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) [Es]arhaddon, [ki]ng of the world, king of Assyria, pious [pr]ince, [be]loved of the god Aššur and the goddess Mullissu, upon whom you placed your protection and whom you safeguarded for kingship, all of whose enemies you killed and (i 10) whose wish you caused (him) to attain, upon whose father’s throne you placed in greatness, and whom [yo]u entrusted with the lordship of the lands; son of Sennacherib, king of the world (and) king of Assyria; descendant of Sargon (II), king of the world (and) king of Assyria — (i 19) The former temple of the god Aššur that Shalmaneser (I), son of…
Source: Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003288/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[mAN].ŠÁR-ŠEŠ-SUM.NA / ⸢LUGAL⸣ KIŠ LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI / ⸢NUN⸣ na-aʾ-du / ⸢na⸣-ram AN.ŠÁR u dNIN.LÍL / šá ṣu-lu-ul-ku-nu / UGU-šú taš-ku-nu-ma / tan-ṣu-ru-šú ana LUGAL-ti / gi-mir za-ma-ni-šú / ta-na-ru-ma / ⸢tu⸣-šak-ši-du ni-iz-ma-su / ina GIŠ.GU.ZA AD-šú / ra-biš tu-še-ši-bu-šú-ma / be-lu-ut KUR.KUR / ⸢tu⸣-šad-gi-lu pa-nu-uš-šú / DUMU md30-PAP.MEŠ-SU / LUGAL KIŠ LUGAL KUR aš-šur1 / DUMU…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003288.
Attribution
Image: Created by Erle Leichty, Jamie Novotny, and the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, 2011, 2017. Lemmatized by Jamie Novotny, 2010, and updated by him, 2017, for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/rinap/Q003288/..
Translation excerpted from Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003288/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.