Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 108
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1') [...] ... [...] ... [...] matter. They were afflicted by [thie]ving (and) murdering. They were stealing from [the po]or (and) giving to the mighty; there was oppression (and) (i 10′) the taking of bribes in the city. Every day, without ceasing, they stole goods from each other, a son (i 15′) cursed his father in the street, a slave [...] to his owner, (ii 1') [...] ... [... His mood] became [furious. The Enlil] of the god[s, the lord of] the lands, plotted evilly to [scat]ter the land and people; (ii 10′) his heart schemed to level the land and to destroy its people. A bitter curse was…
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/Q003337/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x [...]1 / [...] LU [...] / [...] a-ma-ta / [ḫa]-ba-lu šag-ga-šu / [ina] zu-um-ri-ši-na / iš-šá-kin-ma / [en]-šu i-ḫab-bi-lu / [i]-šar-ra-ku a-na dan-ni / ina qé-reb URU dul-lu-lu / ma-ḫar kàd-re-e / ib-ba-ši-ma / UD-šam* la na-par-ka-a2 / im-šu-ʾu NÍG.ŠU.MEŠ ša a-ḫa-meš / ma-a-ru ina su-ú-qi / e-ta-ra-ar AD-šu / re-e-šu a-na EN-šu / [...] x [...]3 / [ka-bat-tuš iṣ]-ṣa-[ri-iḫ] /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003337.
Attribution
Image: Created by Erle Leichty, Jamie Novotny, and the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, 2011, 2015-16. Lemmatized by Jamie Novotny, 2010, and updated by him, 2015-16, 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/Q003337/..
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/Q003337/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.