Social Control and the Power of the Governors

The capture of people fleeing from taxation, debt, or other obligations seems to have been the responsibility of an official called "mule stable attendant," ša bēt kūdini (nos. 48, 79). Quite large groups of people appear to have tried to escape from the "blessings" of the Assyrian government: no. 79 deals with the recapture and resettling of more than 380 Chaldean deportees. The picture of social disorders is enlarged by references to captured criminals or ones to be captured by a governor (nos. 227, 228, 231). However, this picture should not be exaggerated to suggest that Assyria in general was in a state of turmoil. The strongly expansionist policy carried out in the reign of Sargon, with its heavy strain on internal cohesion and effort, had evidently taken its toll in social disaffection.

On the other hand, Assyria's expansion brought affluence to its ruling class which surely affected the mutual relations between the provincial authorities. Allotting booty, prisoners of war and shares of taxes to incorporated territories must have created uneven or unfair situations in different provinces, and rivalry between governors. The very frequent letters denouncing the "foul" deeds of Assyrian authorities to the king (cf. nos. 81, 121, 149, 260; many more examples are known from outside the present corpus) are probably to be understood in this light. They provide evidence of continuous and large-scale variation in provincial competence, jealousy over the exploitation of annexed countries, and competition for territorial jurisdiction over mutually bordering areas.

Giovanni B. Lanfranchi

Giovanni B. Lanfranchi, 'Social Control and the Power of the Governors', The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces, SAA 5. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1990; online contents: SAAo/SAA05 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa05/activitiesinborderprovinces/powerofthegovernors/]

 
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