Three letters from the king should probably be attributed to Esarhaddon in Nineveh. The king upbraids impostors pretending to be people of Babylon and their leader for ingratitude and dishonesty (no. 1). The impostors may be people of Bit-Dakkuri who have misappropriated land belonging to people of Babylon, and their leader may be Šamaš-ibni who was deported to Assyria in 678 B.C.[[13]] The king promises to settle a dispute between an unknown addressee and Ṣillaya in a damaged letter mentioning the Sealand (no. 2). Other legal disputes involving Ṣillaya suggest that no. 2 is from Esarhaddon (see no. 14 on SAA 10 169; nos. 17 and 54). The king asks an unknown addressee why he took control of an area and settled in Nippur; former governors of Nippur, instead of having a sense of obligation to the addressee, are mobilising the governor of Nippur's forces and launching an expedition with Ṣillaya to the Sealand (no. 3). The addressee is ordered to mobilise his forces to support the governor of the Sealand Nabû-eṭir. The role of Ṣillaya suggests an Esarhaddon date after 673 B.C. when Naʾid-Marduk was probably still the governor of the Sealand.[[14]] Ṣillaya is opposed to Assyrian interests in Nippur under Esarhaddon in other letters (no. 70; SAA 10 112).[[15]]
The crown prince writes to the deputy (governor) and Nabû-dini-amur about escapees brought to them by a man from Der (no. 6). The use of the term mār šarri in this Babylonian corpus makes Šamaš-šumu-ukin the likely author; he was designated as crown prince of Babylon in 672 B.C.[[16]] In another letter (no. 7), the crown prince reminds an Assyrian called Šulmu-beli-Iušme that the kings of Elam and Assyria have concluded a peace treaty, and complains that Šulmu-beli-Iušme has detained troops and broken communications. To comply with a royal order, he commands Šulmu-beli-Iušme to send him fugitives, lest Elamite-Assyrian relations be soured. The treaty in question was probably ratified by Urtak of Elam in about 673 B.C.[[17]]
13 See Frame Babylonia 79f and no. 56.
14 See Frame Babylonia 85-89.
15 SAA 10 112 dates from 675 B.C., see Nissinen, SAAS 7 138. In the period 680-675 B.C. Ṣillaya is linked with Nippur and the brothers Naʾid-Marduk and Nabû-ušallim of the Sealand (no. 68; SAA 102 r.1-13, Assyrian letter).
16 Cf. nos. 8 r.2; 108:2. mār šarri signifies Assurbanipal in no. 101 r.8; SAA 10 167:1, 3, and 180:1, 3, 7, 17, r.7, r.9, r.15.
17 See no. 202; Parpola and Watanabe, SAA 2, p. XVII; Waters, SAAS 12 43f.
Frances Reynolds
Frances Reynolds, 'Letters from the King and the Crown Prince', The Babylonian Correspondence of Esarhaddon and Letters to Assurbanipal and Sin-šarru-iškun from Northern and Central Babylonia, SAA 18. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 2003; online contents: SAAo/SAA18 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa18/esarhaddoncorrespondence/fromthekingandthecrownprince/]