During the reigns of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II, the Assyrian empire underwent a period of expansion and the relations between Assyria and her neighbours were principally of a military nature, reflecting the fluctuations of success and failure on the battlefield. In the royal inscriptions of both rulers, military activity was of the utmost importance, and both kings list their military successes in the various regions that were, or were to become, parts of the empire.
The importance of the military is also reflected in the letters from Nimrud because, although the corpus deals with many varied subjects, from food supplies to taxation, from royal justice to private affairs, almost a quarter of the correspondence deals with purely military matters. Saggs himself aptly defined the topics in these letters as follows: "Predictably, there is a good deal concerning logistics and military affairs - the provisioning of army units, the import of horses for chariotry and cavalry , the deportation of conquered populations, and actual reports on military skirmishes .... we find reports also on such matters as: the digging of canals; building operations; prospects for the crops; details of the weather; arrangements for providing wives for a group of tribesmen being resettled; a letter of condolence; postings of civil servants; taxation; and reports of such things as thefts ... . " [[69]]
69 Saggs, Assyriology and the Study of the Old Testament (Cardiff 1969) 16.
Mikko Luukko
Mikko Luukko, 'Relations between Assyria and her Neighbours om the Second Part of the Eighth Century', The Correspondence of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud, SAA 19. Original publication: Winona Laka, IN, Eisenbrauns, 2012; online contents: SAAo/SAA19 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2021 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa19/RelationsbetweenAssyriaandherNeighboursomtheSecondPartoftheEighthCentury/]