Public Speaking in Ancient Mesopotamia: Speeches before Earthly and Divine Battles 1 ANDREAS JOHANDI Abstract Public speaking and rhetoric have been common research fields in classical and biblical studies, but less so in Assyriology. The main purpose of this article is to discuss the role of public speaking in ancient Mesopotamia. First, some general questions concerning public speaking, oral communication, use of direct speech and as- semblies in ancient Mesopotamia are dealt with. Second, the more specific topics of earthly and divine pre-battle speeches in Meso- potamian literature are discussed on the basis of some well-known texts. The results show that the role of public speaking in ancient Mesopotamia has so far been underrated in scholarly literature, es- pecially when compared to scribal activities. The analysis of cunei- form sources of various genres demonstrates that public speaking played an important role in Mesopotamian society. The study of pre- battle speeches as they appear in Mesopotamian literary works such as legends, epics and myths indicates that eloquence and exhortation were highly regarded elements of public addresses before battles. Keywords Assyriology, Mesopotamia, public speaking, eloquence, exhortation, Sargon of Akkad, assemblies, Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh and Agga, ancient battles, pre-battle speeches, Marduk, Enūma Eliš , Ninurta, Epic of Anzu 1 This article was written with the financial support of grants from the Estonian Science Foundation (ETF8993) and the Estonian Research Council (PUT500). The author would like to thank Sebastian Fink for his very helpful comments and suggestions. All the surviving errors in this article are the sole responsibility of the author.