Limmu was an Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

n eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

. At the beginning of the reign of an Assyrian king, the limmu, an appointed royal official, would preside over the New Year festival at the capital. Each year a new limmu would be chosen. Although picked by lot, there was most likely a limited group, such as the men of the most prominent families or perhaps members of the city assembly. The Assyrians used the name of the limmu for that year to designate the year on official documents. Lists of limmus have been found accounting for every year between 892 BC and 648 BC.

During the Old Assyrian

Old Assyrian

Old Assyrian refers to the Old Assyrian period of the Ancient Near East, ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC *the Old Assyrian Empire, see Assyrian Empire*the Old Assyrian language, see Akkadian language...

 period, the king himself was never the limmum, as it was called in their language. In the Middle Assyrian

Middle Assyrian

Middle Assyrian refers to the Middle Assyrian period of the Ancient Near East, ca. 16th to 10th centuries BC *the Middle Assyrian Empire, see Assyrian Empire*the Middle Assyrian language, see Akkadian language...

 and Neo-Assyrian periods, however, the king could take this office.