Control of military activity in border provinces was a duty imposed upon governors, who acted as the king's representatives in providing and organizing the army, both as contingents locally installed and as groups centrally managed and sent to provinces for specific reasons.
Reporting briefly about the state of forts in the province was a widely attested procedure: many letters contain such a report immediately after the greeting formula (e.g., nos. 1-3, 6, 21-25). A number of letters deal with the problem of feeding the local troops (no. 60, 109, 126), a problem which, judging from the frequent communications to the king, must have been of constant difficulty for local administration and must have required particular attention on the part of the central authority. No. 109, in particular, shows the care given to reserve fields for the garrison's feeding requirements despite protests from the local populace. As for troops sent to outer territories, provincial governors had to report their movements, checking their accuracy (e.g.: nos. 3, 72), and to provide for their sustenance (no. 68, referring to provisions for charioteers arriving from Que).
Border provinces were obviously the base for launching military campaigns abroad. Few examples of operations led by local authorities survive, and they seem to have been of limited extent: no. 3 refers to fighting to recover timber from a town, no. 5 probably refers to an attack on the same down, and no. 24 deals with deportation from a mountain town. A particularly interesting set of letters deals with the reviews of troops in preparation for a military campaign: the king asks precise details about the number and the composition of the available army, a request which is duly answered by governors or local authorities. No. 67 tells about an order from the king to review troops to be brought to him; no. 251 contains a short, detailed list of c cavalrymen and charioteers, who were enlisted in groups of 200 (cavalrymen) and 100 (charioteers). The unnamed writer reports about present and missing individuals, and distinguishes between ""king's men" and "chariot owners."
A most interesting and much debated text is no. 215, which contains a long and detailed list of military personnel described as "king's men", available in the province of Mazamua, including Assyrians, Itu'eans and Gurreans. This list has been used for determining the size and composition of the standard Assyrian chariotry unit,[[31]] however without taking into consideration the end of the letter which explicitly states that the figures listed pertain to the troops actually present at the review rather than the whole strength of the army.[[32]] Mazamua was the base for launching major campaigns into the Mannean and Median territories and the letter probably refers to one of them. Perhaps a similar occasion is recalled in no. 234, which refers to a military review and an order to send barley rations to Mazamua.
Letter no. 162 mentions the departure of Assyrian magnates and the visit of the otherwise unknown Zaba-iqiša to Rusa of Urarṭu. The mention of magnates recalls the expedition of year 713, which was led by them, while Sargon remained at home;[[33]] if the attribution is correct, this would be a welcome indication that the Urarṭian king was still alive the year after Sargon's Eighth Campaign.[[34]] Letters no. 199, 210, 226 and 250 deal with the preparation and activity of a campaign to the east. No. 250 is a detailed report about the arrival of the magnates in Kar-Aššur, about the quantities of day and month rations available for troops, and about a review of troops. The location of Kar-Aššur in eastern Babylonia[[35]] would favour a dating to the same year, 713, since the Eponym Chronicle lists Ellipi as an objective of the campaign of that year.[[36]]
The result of military campaigns was the distribution of booty and prisoners of war, both to the centre and to provincial administrations. No. 226, from Mazamua, mentions the sharing of booty of horses; if grouped with the other letters attributable to 713, this one could be placed in the autumn of that year.
Deportees and POWs appear to have been inspected at regular intervals and provided with food, drink and other necessities — a 'humanitarian' feature not included in the usual image of Assyrian war conduct. No. 156 is a report commenting on the miserable condition of a group of freshly arrived captives; no. 242 refers to rations of corn and salt given to deportees.
31 H.W.F. Saggs, "The Nimrud Letters, 1952 — Part VIII," Iraq 28 (1966), p. 187; J.V. Kinnier Wilson, The Nimrud Wine Lists, London 1972, pp. 50-52.
32 The crucial fragmentary sentence "[Perhaps the [ki]ng, my lord, (now) says: 'Where are the rest of the troops?'" (r. 3-4) was correctly understood by the first editor (Saggs, ibid.) but not taken into account by later scholars.
33 A. Ungnad, "Eponymen," RIA 2 (1938), p. 433, Cb 3, 8. Cf. Lie Sar. pp. 28-32: 165-194.
34 Contrary to tile statement of his death after Sargon's sack of Muṣaṣir contained in Sargon's Annals (Lie Sar. p. 28:164f.)
35 Rost Tigl. p. 2:10; 42:7: 56:11.
36 A. Ungnad, "Eponymen," RIA 2 (1938), p. 433, Cb 3, 11. Sargon's annals do not contain any indication about Ellipi.
Giovanni B. Lanfranchi
Giovanni B. Lanfranchi, 'Provinces as Bases for Military Control', 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/provincesasbasesforcontrol/]