SAA 21 004. Perhaps Babylon Can Still be Saved (ABL 0571)[via saao/saa21]
| Obverse | ||
| oo | beginning (two lines) broken away | |
| o 1'1' | (1') [The king's word to the Babylonians: I am well]; you can be glad. | |
| o 2'2' | (2') [The day] you see this [letter], speak [with] your hearts, take with you any number of the Babylonians, your brothers, whose hearts you know and who have (any) responsibility (left) in [them], and come over before Milki-r[am] the cohort commander and Aššur-da[''inanni], the commander-in-chief, because they are about to throw (their forces) agai[nst] Babylon, in accordance with what you said: | |
| o 3'3' | ||
| o 4'4' | ||
| o 5'5' | ||
| o 6'6' | ||
| o 7'7' | ||
| o 8'8' | ||
| o 9'9' | ||
| o 10'10' | ||
| o 11'11' | ||
| o 12'12' | ||
| o 13'13' | ||
| o 14'14' | (14') "Let us go and speak to our brothers, rend our garments, take heart, and discuss with them the things by which they have destroyed themselves and through which we can snatch Babylon from the hands of the enemy; perhaps Babylon can still be saved from massacre." | |
| o 15'15' | ||
| o 16'16' | ||
| o 17'17' | ||
| o 18'18' | ||
| o 19'19' | ||
| o 20'20' | ||
| Reverse | ||
| r 1r 1 | ||
| r 22 | (r 2) Now then I am writing to you: Remember these words of yours, come,line up, speak with your brothers, and let us snatch the city from enemy hands so that it will not be subjected to plunder. | |
| r 33 | ||
| r 44 | ||
| r 55 | ||
| r 66 | ||
| r 77 | ||
| r 88 | ||
| r 99 | (r 9) If it requires friendly words, speak in friendly terms, and if it requires stern words, speak with them in stern terms. | |
| r 1010 | ||
| r 1111 | ||
| r 1212 | ||
| r 1313 | (r 13) If Marduk wants to keep them alive, let them open [the city gate] in friendly terms; if n[ot], I have prayed to Aššur and Marduk, my gods, and [my] gods [...]. | |
| r 1414 | ||
| r 1515 | ||
| r 1616 | ||
| r 1717 | ||
| r 1818 | ù URU ša* ram-ni-⸢šu⸣ [0] | (r 18) So let the city not be left on its own (and) i[n] enemy [hand]s |
| r 1919 | ||
| r 2020 | [x x x x] ⸢x⸣ | |
| rest broken away |
Adapted from Simo Parpola, The Correspondence of Ashurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Babylonia, and Vassal States (State Archives of Assyria, 21), 2018. Adapted by Jamie Novotny and lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P393854/.