priest, the servant, who fears thy great godhead, and for his camp,
greatly, greatly there is peace." So this looks like a letter from the
king to the god Ashur, to the city named from him, and to its
inhabitants. Yet it is a very unusual rescript, very different from
those which have come down to us in the official archives, especially
in the use of the third person in speaking of the king, while in the
regular letters the first is always found. Further, in the body of the
supposed letter, the king, as is usual in the official annals, speaks
in the first person.

However it may be with the real character of the "letter," there can
be no doubt as to its great value. To be sure, we may see in its boast
that in the campaign but six soldiers were lost a more or less severe
stretching of the truth, but, at least in comparison with the later
records, it is not only much fuller, but far more accurate. Indeed,
comparison with the later Annals shows that document to be even worse
than we had dared suspect.

Comparison of the newly discovered inscription with the parallel
passages of the broken prism B shows that this is simply a condensed
form of its original. The booty seems to have been closely copied, but
the topographical details are much abbreviated. The discovery of this
tablet, while supplying the lacunae in Prism B, has made this part
useless. But all the more clearly is brought out the superiority, in
this very section, of the Prism over the later Annals. Naturally, we
assume the same to be true in the other portions preserved, in fact,
the discovery of the tablet has been a brilliant confirmation of the
proof long ago given that this was superior to the Annals. [Footnote:
Olmstead, _Sargon_, 11 ff., with reconstruction of the order of
the various fragments, as against Prasek, OLZ. XII. 117, who sharply