Then after some defaced lines, he threatens that if they do not obey,
“I will send my troops.”
This order is dated the fifth of Iyyar, b.c. 650. By that date Nabû-bêl-shumâte had fled. It is not easy to say whether Ashurbânipal had appointed a lady, once the ḫarimtu, [pg 350] or courtesan, of Menânu, as ruler of the Sealand before Nabû-bêl-shumâte, or whether he means to call Nabû-bêl-shumâte by this opprobrious epithet. Who is meant by Menânu is hard to see, unless it be the Elamite King, Umman-minana, the contemporary of Sennacherib, who had protected the family of Merodach-Baladan II.
Letter of Ummanaldash offering to give up Nabû-bêl-shumâte
We have a fragmentary letter[889] from the King of Elam, Ummanaldash, to Ashurbânipal, which says:
Letter of Ummanaldash, King of Elam, to Ashurbânipal, King of Assyria, peace be to my brother. From the beginning, the Martenai [Elamite name for the Sealanders, from Marratu, “the Salt Marshes”] have been sinners against thee. Nabû-bêl-shumâte came from there. The crossing of the land ... over against Elam I broke down, [to keep him out]. Thou hast sent letters [or forces?] saying, “Send Nabû-bêl-shumâte.” I will seize Nabû-bêl-shumâte and will send him to thee. The Martenai whom from the beginning Nabû-bêl-shumâte brought us ... they are people who came by water from ... it entered into their minds and they came, they broke into Laḫiru and there they are. I will send to their border my servants against them and by their hands I will send those who have sinned against us. If they are in my land, I will send them by their hands; and, if they have crossed the river, do thou [take them].
The rest of the letter is hard to make out. It was dated on the twenty-sixth of Tammuz, in the Eponymy of Nabû-shar-aḫêshu, probably b.c. 645.
Letter of Bêl-ibnî accusing Nabû-bêl-shumâte of imprisoning his brother
Bêl-ibnî had a great hatred for Nabû-bêl-shumâte. For the latter had years before laid hands upon Bêl-ibnî's eldest brother, Bêlshunu, and put him in prison. This we learn from a letter to the king,[890] which, although the name of the writer is lost, is clearly from Bêl-ibnî. The first few lines yield no connected sense, but name Umman-shimash and the nobles with him:
When they assembled they spoke evil words against their king. From those days they kept on plundering his land. Before the [pg 351] forces of the lord of kings, my lord, want, like a pestilence, entered the land. When the forces of the lord of kings, my lord, have arrived at Dûr-ili, they shall not take a holiday; that smitten of Bêl, accursed of the gods, Nabû-bêl-shumâte, and the sinners with him, they shall capture and give them to the lord of kings, my lord. And the Assyrians, as many as are with them, they shall release and send to the lord of kings, my lord. Bêlshunu, my eldest brother, a servant of the lord of kings, my lord, now four years ago, did that smitten of Bêl, that accursed of the gods, Nabû-bêl-shumâte, when he revolted, bind hand and foot with bronze and imprison him.