The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-09-24
TWAS EVER IkiIIS.
40" Princess Called Down Another
Woman $500 Years Ago.


Woman $500 Years Ago.
Twenty five hundred years ago a
princess of the royal family of AS
syria wrote letter TO a lady of the
imperial court, in which the latter
was haughtily rebuked for presum-
ing to use the familiar title of isis
! ter. IN addressing the royal lady.
IN baltimore an English translation
OF this letter was published by the
Johns Hopkins university. DR..
christopher Johnston has been
working for some time to puzzle out
the dignifed terms in which one
woman of those ancient DAYS re-
buked another.
The letter was not written with
ink upon a sheet of tinted paper. as
would be done by fair dame today.
but was inscribed in cuneiform char
acters upon tablet of baked CLAW.
1t is in 10 lines, and the royal lady
did not waste words to express her
contempt at the others imperti.
nence. The tablet was written only
a few years before the destruction
OF Nlneveh and the overthrow of
the Assyrian empire, which is gen.
orally placed by historians as hay.
ing occurred in COG B. G. It is one
OF the few remains of that period
which have come down to the schol-
ars of the present day. It was dis
covered score or more years ago,
and many Assyriologists have tried
their hand at a translation. DR..
Johnston, in working upon it, did
not have the original tablet, but
picture of it. The royal lady who
wrote the letter, or who probably
dictated it to her scribe, was the
Princess Sheruaeterat, a grand
daughter of the famous Assyrian
monarch Assurbanipal, called Sar-
danapalus by Greek writers, who,
IN addition to being a great con-
queror, was the founder of an ex-
tensive public library and a patron
OF literature and the arts. The let
ter is translated by Johnston:
Message of the king S daughter to
Asshur-Sharrat. Thou dost not prop
erly address thy letter to me, nor
use the title to me bef tting my sta
ton. People might say, rs she the
sister of Sheruaeterat, the oldest
daughter of Ashur- til-ilani-ukinni,
the great king, the mighty king,
king of hosts, king, of Assyria?'
But thou art only'the daughter of
the daughter-in-law of the wife of
Assurbanipal, eldest son of Esarnad-
don, king of Assyria.
DR.. Johnston suggests that this
sentence was probably q crushing
blow for the recipient of the letter,
as the peculiar expression "daugh-
ter of the daughter-in law of Assur-
banfpal's wife, was most likely a
reference to some delectable bit of
court scandal in the famous Assyrian
empire. The doctor also said that
the rebuke was perfectly proper
one from what is known today of
Assyrian etiquette il, letter writing.
IF the lady, Asshur- Sharrat, ad-
dressed the princess as sister with
out being SO related" said he, "she
certainly committed a gross breach
of etiquette and was guilty of an
impertinence which richly merited
a rebuke. Even if she was actually
her sister, it is doubtful whether
she could have so addressed the eld-
est daughter of the sovereign fami-
ly. We find prince speaking of his
father as the king, my lord but
never as my father. And among
private individuals, except in the
case of near relatives, it was the
invariable rule to address each per-
son by his proper title, with the ad-
dition of the words my lord. -
Baltimore Sun.