Position in chronology
SAA 17 067. The People of Akkad Bless the Approaching King (CT 54 031)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) [Your servant Ana]-Nab[û-taklak: I would gladly die for the ki]ng of the un[iver]se, my l[or]d! [Say to the ki]ng, my lord: [The land, the troops] and the servants of the king, my lo[rd, are well. The guard of the king is ver[y strong] day and night. [The king, my lord, can be] glad. (6) Concerning [... whom the king], my [lord], sent here and [....] (8) [...] ... [...] (9) [...] the servants of the kin[g ...] are [daily] bless[ing the king], my lord: "[Now ...] we are alive, since the king, [our lord, has ...ed] the well-being of Bit-[Dakuri ...] and [counted] us with the servants of…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ARAD-ka ma-na—d].⸢AG⸣—[tak-lak] / [a-na di-na-an] ⸢LUGAL kiš-šat be-lí-ia⸣ [lul-lik] / [um-ma-a a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-lí-⸢ia⸣-[a-ma] / [a-na KUR e-mu-qu] ù ARAD-MEŠ šá LUGAL ⸢be⸣-[lí-ia šul-mu] / [EN.NUN šá LUGAL UD]-⸢mu⸣ u mu-ši ma-aʾ-[diš dan-na-at] / [ŠÀ-bu šá LUGAL lu] ⸢DÙG⸣.GA a-na UGU [x x x x] / [šá LUGAL be-lí]-a iš-pu-ram-⸢ma⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x x x x]-ba-a da [x x x x] / [x x x x x x]…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238100.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238100). 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/P238100/.
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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.