Position in chronology
SAA 16 115. These Men are Drunkards (ABL 0085)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Bel-iqiša. May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord. (5) The servants of my lord's household who(se status) the king, my lord, has determined (as of) today: (8) Tabalayu son of Bel-Harran-ahu-uṣur, whom the king, my lord, promoted to the rank of cohort commander; Nabû-sagib, whom the king, my lord, promoted to the rank of permanent 'third man'; (and) Atamar-Marduk, whom the king, my lord, promoted to the rank of bodyguard — (r 4) these three men are drunkards. When they are drunk, none of them can turn his iron sword away from his colleague. (r 10) I have written to the king, my lord, (about) a matter that I know. The king, my lord, may do as he deems best.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka mEN—BA-šá / dPA dAMAR.UTU a-na MAN EN-ía / lik-ru-bu / ARAD-MEŠ ša É—EN-MEŠ-ia / ša LUGAL be-lí UD-mu / an-ni-ú ú-par-ri-su-u-ni / mtab-URU-a.a DUMU mEN—KASKAL—PAB—PAB / ša a-na LÚv.GAL—ki-ṣir-u-tú / LUGAL be-lí ú-še-lu-u-ni / mdPA—sa-kib ša TAv LÚv.03.U₅-MEŠ / ka-a.<a>-ma-nu-te / LUGAL be-lí ú-še-lu-u-ni / mIGI.LAL—dŠÚ / ša TAv LÚv.qur-ZAG-MEŠ / LUGAL BE…
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P334034.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334034). source
Translation excerpted from Luukko, M. & Van Buylaere, G. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. SAA 16. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa16/P334034/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
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.