lf one were to judge solely from Esarhaddon's royal inscriptions and queries, there would seem to have been a great deal of turmoil and trouble in the north and north west of Assyria under his reign. One of his main military campaigns was directed against Subria in 673,[[67]] and his queries repeatedly record threats posed by the Cilicians and Scythians. On the other hand, judging solely by the evidence provided by the preserved correspondence of Esarhaddon, the north and northwest would appear to have been the quietest points of the compass during his reign.
One badly broken letter (no. 151) deals with Assyria's relations with Uranu, which may have been peaceful throughout the reign of Esarhaddon. For the present, the role which Urarṭu played at this time remains, however, uncertain.[[68]] The Cimmerians invasions of Urarṭu at the end of the eighth and the beginning of the seventh century had presumably weakened the country so decisively that the Assyrians did not perceive much of a threat from that direction.[[69]]
This may be one of the reasons why these letters inform us so poorly about Urartu, but it is not the whole truth. It seems that the Assyrians were still very alert with regard to Urarṭu and kept a close eye on it, although only one fragmentary intelligence report from the border of Urarṭu has survived to us (no. 18).[[70]] That report, by the crown prince Assurbanipal,[[71]] clearly documents Assurbanipal's involvement in political and military matters during his father's reign.[[72]] The bulk of the letter is destroyed, but it apparently consisted chiefly of a long quotation from a report by an Assyrian official responsible for the border district between Assyria and Urarṭu. This may be compared with no. 148, where the king is quoted as urging the guards of the fortresses on the border of Urarṭuqu to be attentive and quickly send to the crown prince any deserters who may cross over the border. It may be noted, however, that the letter does not mention any deserters from Urarṭu, even though the guards of the fortresses of Urarṭu are mentioned before all the other guards in the letter. This suggests that the Assyrian intelligence service was more concerned about nomadic warrior peoples, such as the Cimmerians and Scythians, who were present in Urarṭu at that time, than about the Urarṭians themselves. Esarhaddon fought with the Cimmerians early in his rule, and a reference to the Cimmerians in a fragmentary letter datable to the year 680 may indicate a threat in the north (see no. 95). At the end of Esarhaddon's reign the Cimmerians are attested around Mannea and Media in the cast (sec "The East and Southeast," above). That does not exclude their presence in the north as well.
67 For this campaign see, e.g., E. Leichty, Festschrift Tadmor p. 52ff.
68 Was Uraṭu allied with the Cimmerians against Assyria at some point? That conclusion might be advanced on the basis of SAA 4 18. See ibid. P. LXI. On the other hand, contrary to evidence may be adduced from the so-called letter to the god Aššur (or alternatively the letter to the gods by Esarhaddon), see E. Leichty, Festschrift Tadmor, pp. 55 and 57.
69 See, e.g., SAA 1 30-32; SAA 4 p. LIX, Kuhrt ANE p. 558, J. G. Macqueen, CANE p. 1102, and P.E Zimansky, ibid., p. 1140.
70 Esarhaddon's suspicions regarding Uraṭu become clear from SAA 4 18-19.
71 The name of the sender is not preserved but can certainly be restored as Assurbanipal nn the basis of the handwriting and orthographic analysis.
72 For Assurbanipal's active role in politics in the last year of Esarhaddon see, e.g., LAS II p. 235f and SAA 4 p. LIX.
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere, 'The North and Northwest', The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon, SAA 16. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 2002; online contents: SAAo/SAA16 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa16/relationsbetweenassyriaanditsneighbours/thenorthandnorthwest/]