Kings, Priests, and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Period

Abstract

Despite a relative dearth of information in the surviving corpus about Assyrian priests’ more routine concerns, the Assyrian state correspondence contains some details that can improve our knowledge of priests’ daily lives, rights, and responsibilities. Using four case studies, this paper analyzes situations in which priests are accused of misconduct or crimes to better understand the powers and expectations of individual priestly offices as well as the realities of everyday life that might have rendered these boundaries more flexible or surmountable. These cases of irregularities reveal that cultic personnel had distinct economic, legal, and judicial roles and were sometimes able to extend their powers when necessary to manage issues such as crime and shortages in resources, only requesting royal intervention as a last resort.