The gardener, or rather irrigator, may be a royal title. At present these observations are useless to us in our attempts to fix chronology, as we do not know the month and year of many of them.
The queen-dowager's importance
The queen-mother was always an important personage in the state and she had very great influence indeed at court. But probably few ladies ever obtained a higher degree of power than did Naki'a, or Zakutu as she was also called, the wife of Sennacherib and mother of Esarhaddon. She had a sister Abirami.[923] The queen-mother resided in Laḫiru, but there seem to have been more than one city of the name. Her necklace, or some part of it, is in private possession [pg 370] and has been described by Professor Scheil.[924] She survived her son, and, with her grandsons, Ashurbânipal, Shamash-shum-ukîn, and the nobles of Assyria, issued a proclamation to the empire, declaring Ashurbânipal the true heir to the throne.
Letter of Nâ'id-Marduk to her
It is, of course, uncertain whether the person addressed as mother of the king is always Zakûtu, since we cannot always date the letters. But the letter of Nâ'id-Marduk,[925] which names Ummanigash as King of Elam, was certainly addressed to her. Nâ'id-Marduk was a son of Merodach Baladan, who, in the reign of Esarhaddon, when his brother Nabû-zêr-kînish-lîshir was killed by Ummanaldash II., threw himself on the mercy of Esarhaddon and was by him made ruler of his ancestral domain of Bît Jakin, as a vassal king. He speaks for himself:
To the mother of the king, my lord, thy servant Nâ'id-Marduk. Peace be to the mother of the king, my lord. May Ashur, Shamash, and Marduk give health to the king, my lord. May they decree the cheer of heart of the mother of the king, my lord. From Elam they came to me, saying, “They have seized the bridge.” When they came, I sent to the mother of the king, my lord. Now let the bridge be restored and the bolts of the bridge strengthened. They say, “They have burnt it.” I have not sent them, we do not know. They came, it was gone. To the mother of the king, my lord, I will send. Do thou, my lord, send troops. The son of Ningal-iddina has gone to the King of (Elam?) and taken the side of Ḥubanigash. [Several lines follow with only fragments of sentences.] “Since these are trustworthy reports, whatever the Chaldees in future send to the gods of the king, my lord. If a messenger of the King of Elam does not bring messages to me, he shall enter and I will see him, and whatever is his message, he shall explain until I understand.” They came on the second of Ab, his messenger came to me to the border; he did not pass over to hinterland, and I sent my messenger to the palace. My lord, may he decide, and what is right for the house of my lord, fulfil.
It is evident that the writer regards the queen-mother as so thoroughly identical with the king that he does not scruple to address her as “my lord.” Despite several lacunæ the general sense is clear. After the break the passage in quotation marks seems to be quoted from a report made to the writer. The sons of Ningal-iddina were Sin-tabni-uṣur, Sin-balâṭsu-iḳbi, and Sin-shar-uṣur, all of whom were in important commands in Southern Babylonia. It seems probable that the events referred to in this letter are those which led up to the Elamite invasion of Babylonia, when they came raiding as far as Sippara. Esarhaddon was away at the time in the west. There is no record of how they were driven back.
Here is a letter from the king to his mother:[926]
King's letter to her
Message of the king to the king's mother: I am well. Peace be to the king's mother. Concerning Amushe's servant, what thou didst send me, as the king's mother has told me, I will at once order. What thou hast said is extremely good. Wherefore should Ḥamunai go?