An Israeli archaeologist looking over an ancient tablet found in at a dig site in Jerusalem recently made a surprising but also sort of mundane discovery: The Assyrian king Sennacherib was demanding his vassals in Judea, the co-Kings Hezekiah and Manasseh, pay their fucking taxes and now or else Sennacherib was going to be sending his collection agents, Popular Mechanics reports.
“Dear King of Judah, Send the tribute quickly by the first of Av [name for month] and if not, the consequences will be severe,” Sennacherib had his scribes write on the tablet.