Case file · Folklore / legend
Esarhaddon's substitute kings
Letters from scholars to King Esarhaddon of Assyria describe putting a substitute on the throne after an eclipse omen threatened the king, then killing him so the omen was 'fulfilled'.
671 BCE · 36.36, 43.15 · status: official
The account
Several such rites are documented in the royal correspondence from Nineveh in the 670s BC. The real king stayed in seclusion, addressed as 'the farmer', while the substitute reigned for up to a hundred days. The letters are among the most vivid records of how seriously omens were taken.
The sceptical view
The documents are genuine; they show a ritual answer to a feared omen, not any effect of the omen itself.