Position in chronology
SAA 01 241. My Troops are Scarce (ABL 0563)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) ......] my [troops are scarce. [My prefects] went to (fetch) the men at their command; I have been waiting for them ever since I came back from the king my lord's presence, but they have not come. (r 2) I wrote to the king, my lord, but only got [2]60 horses and [13] small boys. [2]67 horses and 15 men — I have 527 horses and 28 men, all told. I have been writing to wherever there are king's men, but they have not come. The scribe is with the king, my lord; the king, my lord, should ask him. (r 11) The horses of the king lord had grown weak, so I let them go up the mountain and graze there [...... (Rest destroyed)
Source: Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334385/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x]+⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / [e-mu-qi]-ia e*-⸢ṣa* LÚv*⸣.[GAR-nu-MEŠ-ia] / [ina] UGU LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ ŠU.[2*]-šú*-⸢nu⸣ / [it]-⸢tal⸣-ku TAv mar / [TAv] IGI LUGAL EN-ia / ⸢al⸣-li-kan-ni a-da-gal / [ina] ⸢IGI⸣-šú-nu la-áš-šu la i-li-ku-ni / [ina] UGU LUGAL EN-a a-sap-ra / [02] me 60 ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ / [13] LÚv.TUR-MEŠ qàl-lu-te ak-ta-šá-da / [02] me 67 ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ 15 LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ / PAB 05 me 27 KUR-MEŠ…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Sargon II, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 1, 1987). Letter from a governor or high official to the king of Assyria. ORACC text P334385.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334385). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334385/.
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