Position in chronology
SAA 17 053. Rehabilitation as Royal Servant (Addressed to the Chief Eunuch) (ABL 0283)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) To the chief eunuch, [my] lord, your servant Bel-ibni. May Nabû and Marduk bless my lord! (3) Initially, when I did not come to the audience of the king, there were men who came from Elam to see the king and who, in order to obtain intercession for themselves, libelled me in the palace. There was also a certain opponent of mine who said and wrote to the palace bad things about me from Elam. When I heard of this, I did not come, because I was afraid. Now (however), I have become desirous of serving the king. (14) All those who initially committed a crime have been forgiven by the king. (As…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
a-na LÚ.GAL—SAG be-lí-[ia] / ARAD-ka mdEN—ib-ni dAG u dAMAR.UTU / a-na be-lí-ia lik-ru-bu re-eš-su / šá ana pa-an LUGAL la al-li-ka / i-ba-áš-ši ERIM-MEŠ šá ul-tu KUR.NIM.MA.KI / a-na pa-an LUGAL il-li-ku-ni a-na ṣa-bat / a-bu-ti šá ra-ma-ni-šú-nu kar-ṣi-ía / ina É.GAL i-tak-lu u i-ba-áš-ši mam-ma / zi-ʾi-i-ra-na-a šá ul-tu KUR.NIM.MA.KI / dib-bi bi-i-šu-ti a-na UGU-ḫi-ía / iš-ku-nu-ma a-na É.GAL…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237834.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237834). 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/P237834/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.
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.