Bel-iqisa and Babi-lû Bel-iqisa · Babi-lû
keepers of the palace wine cellar · Nineveh, Assyria · c. 8th–7th century BC
Two men in charge of the wine cellars of the Assyrian royal palace. They wrote together to the king that there was no room for the wine that had come in. Nothing else is known of them.
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c. 8th–7th century BC · Tebet is the tenth month, in winter. The brackets and the question mark are the translator Johnston's; the translation is as Sayce reprints it.
Let the king our lord know that the wine received during the month Tebet has been bottled, but that there is no room for it, so we must make (new) cellars for the king our lord. Let the king our lord give orders that a (place for) the cellars be shown to us, and we shall be relieved from our embarrassment (?). The wine that has come for the king our lord is very considerable. Where shall we put it?A clay-tablet letter from the royal archive at Nineveh · A. H. Sayce, Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs (1899) · in place of the original: the English translation by Christopher Johnston (1899)
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