The provinces where our letters originate were a pivotal place for relations with the independent communities and states bordering on the Assyrian empire. Many of these territories, due to their position between the two fighting empires, were directly, and in varying degrees, involved in the conflict. Owing to the selection dealt with in this volume, we have only very few examples of territories which were not directly involved in that war. From this point of view, the data provided by our texts on the relations between Assyria and independent states, which are essential for a full understanding of the relations between imperial and peripheral political structures, seem ab origine conditioned by an underlying specific political situation (the great war), which may condition in some way the nature of the documentation.
Giovanni B. Lanfranchi
Giovanni B. Lanfranchi, 'The Empire and Minor Independent States', 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/empireandminorstates/]