Position in chronology
SAA 17 040. Nabu-šuma-iškun and Sin-duri are Libelling me (CT 54 070)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) [Your servant Qišti-Marduk: I would gladly die for Sargon, king of Babylon, king of the lands, the strong king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk] bless [Sargon, king of Babylon, king of the lands, the strong king, my lord]! Say [to the king, my lord]: (5) The guar[d of Esaggil and Babylon] and the gods of the king, my lord, are well. The king can be glad! [...] (8) The [hearts of] the whole of the land of Akkad [are happy]. (9) I am one who fears the king of the universe. [...] (10) [Perhaps the king] will say: "[...]." (11) The king [...] a fat-tailed sheep! (12) The gods of the king surely…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ARAD-ka mNÍG.BA—dAMAR.UTU a-na di-na-an LUGAL—ú-kin LUGAL TIN.TIR.KI] / [LUGAL KUR.KUR LUGAL dan-nu be-lí-ía lul-lik dAG ù dAMAR.UTU] / [a-na LUGAL—ú-kin LUGAL TIN.TIR.KI LUGAL KUR.KUR LUGAL dan-nu be-lí-ía] / ⸢lik⸣-ru-bu um-⸢ma⸣-[a a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma] / [a]-⸢na⸣ ma-aṣ-ṣar-⸢ti⸣ [šá É.SAG.ÍL u TIN.TIR.KI] / [a]-⸢na⸣ DINGIR-MEŠ šá LUGAL ⸢be-lí-ia⸣ [šul-mu LUGAL be-lí-a] / ⸢lu⸣-ú ḫa-a-mi ⸢x x…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238354.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238354). source
Translation excerpted from Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. SAA 17. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa17/P238354/.
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Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.