491 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXIV N° 5-6, september-december 2017 492 THE VIZIER AND THE BROTHER: SARGON II’S BROTHER AND VIZIER SĪN-AḪU-UṢUR AND THE NEO-ASSYRIAN COLLATERAL BRANCHES 1 ) NATALIE N. MAY Abstract It is now firmly established that Sargon II’s brother Sīn-aḫu- uṣur was also his vizier (sukkallu). He was the addressee of many letters written by the subjects of the Empire. He appears on a num- ber of contemporary documents. The present study demonstrates that the correspondence of Sargon’s brother and vizier, together with some historical documents, show that Sīn-aḫu-uṣur was ruling Babylonia on behalf of his brother, the king. The paper will analyse the spheres of the king’s brother’s involvement in the state affairs. The article investigates the extraordinary status and functions of the sukkallu of Sargon, who restored the grandeur of this office based on the Middle Assyrian precedent especially for his brother. The author further explores Ḫarrān as the seat of the collateral royal family members and the role of the precedent of the Middle Assyrian dynasty of sukkallus, the kings of ḪaniGALbat, 2 ) in the ideology of the Sargonids. Lastly, I will argue that the relationship between Sargon and Sīn-aḫu-uṣur served a model for Esarhaddon in his division of power between his two sons and heirs, Assurba- nipal and Šamaš-šumu-ukīn. Sargon conducted vast administrative reforms starting at the very beginning of his reign. 3 ) One of the boldest of Sar- gon’s political and administrative innovations was the resur- rection of the office of the vizier (sukkallu). The title suk- kallu was barely known in the Neo-Assyrian period before Sargon and the “viziers” never played an important role after 1 ) The abbreviations used in this article are those employed by the Reallexikon der Assyriologie. PNs, but not the DNs are in accordance with PNA and GNs in accordance with Parpola/Porter 2001. 2 ) In my opinion, the reading Ḫani-rabbat is preferred over Ḫanigalbat, but in order to avoid confusion it will be rendered as ḪaniGALbat in this article. See recently Valerio 2012. 3 ) Sargon’s reforms are discussed in my other articles, which in con- junction to these reforms parenthetically graze also Sargon’s sukkallu (May 2012: 193–207; May 2015, especially 85–91). Religious reforms of Sargon and Sennacherib, which are not referred to in the present study, are best summarized by Vera Chamaza (2002: 111–167, particularly 126–128 for Sargon). his time. In the reign of Sargon and only in his reign the vizier was endowed with extraordinary power and authority. The aim of the present article is an exhaustive analysis of the sources related to Sargon’s vizier and brother and to review the precursors of this phenomenon and its impact. Paradoxically or not, Sargon, whose ascension to power resulted from his overthrowing his (half?)-brother Shalma- neser V, relied heavily on his son and heir Sennacherib, 4 ) and his (full?) brother Sīn-aḫu-uṣur. 5 ) The office of sukkallu was restored to its greatness especially for Sīn-aḫu-uṣur and mod- elled after the collateral royal branch of the MA sukkallus. The king’s brother was the mightiest of his magnates. The power of Sargon’s brother and sukkallu stretched far beyond that of the king’s other officials. The very title sukkallu is hardly attested in the first millennium before Sargon. 6 ) Middle Assyrian Precedent Besides the reign of Sargon, the office of sukkallu flour- ished indeed only in the MA period when it was second in importance after that of the king. The “chief vizier”, suk- kallu rabiu, and the “second vizier”, sukkallu šaniu are attested in in the MA Coronation Ritual, standing out among other dignitaries. The sukkallus are the first to lay down(?) their staffs before the king in course of this ritual. 7 ) The MA dynasty of sukkallus, a collateral royal branch, the descendants of Ibašši-ilī, 8 ) brother of Shalmaneser I and son of Adad-nērārī I, has been reconstructed by a number of scholars. 9 ) Two representatives of the MA sukkallu dynasty— Qibi-Aššūr and his grandson Ilī-padâ — bore the double title sukkallu rabiu (SUKKAL.GAL) šar māt ḪaniGALbat, “grand vizier, king of ḪaniGALbat”. 10 ) ḪaniGALbat was annexed 4 ) E.g., PNA: 1116–1117 about the role of Sennacherib during the reign of Sargon. 5 ) Apparently, the role of Sargon’s queen rose as well. See SAA 19 158 dated by Luukko to the reign of Sargon, and the discussion in Svärd 2015: 73 and May 2015: 110, n. 168. 6 ) For the attestations of sukkallu under Adad-nērārī III and Tiglath- pileser III, see May 2012: 196 and below with fns. 27–31. 7 ) SAA 20 7 rev. iii 8–9. For the summary of the MA sukkallus being the precedent for the position of Sīn-aḫu-uṣur, see May 2012: 195–196 and May 2015: 85–89. 8 ) Freydank 1991: 60 upgraded in Cancik-Kirschbaum 1996: 22; Cancik-Kirschbaum 1999: 214; Wiggermann 2006: 93; finally, most com- plete in Jakob 2003: 64. Cancik-Kirschbaum (1996: 19 with n. 63 and p. 20 with nn. 67–69; 1999: 214, 220 with n. 42) refers to the documents describing Aššūr-iddin, the father of Ilī-padâ, Šulmānu-mušabši and Sīn-apla-iddina as sukkallu and sukkallu rabiu. For the most recent review, including chronology, see Bloch 2010, especially pp. 3–4. Only DeZ 3305: 32 mentioning the sukkallu Aššūr-iddin and DeZ 3374 rev. 16 referring to sukkallu rabiu Šulmānu-mušabši are published (Röllig 2008: 53–54, no. 22 and 170–171, no. 92). 9 ) Freydank names Qibi-Aššūr, son of Ibašši-ilī and the grandson of Adad-nērārī I, as the first holder of the title sukkallu rabiu (SUKKAL.GAL) šar māt ḪaniGALbat (Freydank 1991: 59–61) based on the evidence of the stelae inscriptions. Cancik-Kirschbaum assigns the title SUKKAL.GAL already to Ibašši-ilī with the reservation that this is a suggestion based on the titles of his descendants (Cancik-Kirschbaum 1999: 214–215 with n. 15). As for the bead with a dedicatory inscription of Ibašši-ilī, SUKKAL. GAL, Borger suggested to date it by the period from Tiglath-pileser I to Aššūr-bēl-kala on palaeographic and orthographic grounds (RIMA 2 A.0.89.2002). All the available information about the MA sukkallus was collected in Jakob 2003: 55–57. 10 ) Attested on two stelae installed by their descendants during the reign of Tukultī-Ninurta I in the Stelenreihen: no. 63+137a (Andrae 1913: 61, 87–88 = Saporetti 1979: 131, for Qibi-Aššūr) and no. 129 (Andrae 1913: 85 = Saporetti 1979: 132, for Ilī-padâ). Aššūr-iddin seems to rule ḪaniGALbat as well (Llop 2012: 96). Notably, Qibi-Aššūr, the sukkallu of Tukultī-Ninurta I, held the eponym office next year after the king, as did