Sargon II Sargon II , captor of Samaria , with a dignitary Sargon II ( ܣܪܓܘܢ in Syriac ) ( r. 722 BC - 705 BC ) was an Assyrian king . He took the throne from Shalmanassar V in 722 BC . It is not clear if he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family . In his inscriptions , he styles himself as a new man , rarely referring to his predecessors , and he took the name Sharru-kinu , true king , after Sargon of Akkad , a mighty king who had been found in a wicker basket , a child of a temple prostitute and an unknown father . Sargon is the name given by the Bible . Beset by difficulties at the beginning of his rule , Sargon made a pact with the Chaldean Marduk-apla-iddin . He freed all temples , as well as the inhabitants of the towns of Assur and Harran from taxes . While Sargon was thus trying to gain support in Assyria , Marduk-apla-iddin conquered Babylon with the help of the new Elamite king Ummanigash and was crowned king in 721 BC . In 720 BC Sargon moved against Elam , but the Assyrian host was defeated near Der . Later that year , Sargon defeated a Syrian coalition at Qarqar , which gained him control of Arpad , Simirra , and Damascus . Sargon conquered Gaza in Philistia , destroyed Rafah , and won a victory over Egyptian troops . On his way back , he had Samaria rebuilt as the capital of the new province of Samerina and settled it with Arabs . In 717 BC he conquered parts of the Zagros mountains and the Hittite city of Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates . In 716 BC he moved against the kingdom of Mannai , where the ruler Aza , son of Iranzu , had been deposed by Ullusunu with the help of the Urartians . Sargon took the capital Izirtu , and stationed troops in Parsuash ( the original home of the Persian tribe , on lake Urmia ) and Kar-Nergal ( Kishesim ) . He built new bases in Media as well , the main being Harhar and Kar-Sharrukin . In 715 BC , others were to follow : Kar-Nabu , Kar-Sin and Kar-Ishtar , all named after Babylonian gods and resettled by Assyrian subjects . The eighth campaign of Sargon against Urartu in 714 BC is well known from a letter from Sargon to the god Ashur ( found in the town of Assur , now in the Louvre ) and the bas-reliefs in the palace of Dur-Sharrukin . The campaign was probably motivated by the fact that the Urartians had been weakened by incursions of the Cimmerians , a nomadic steppe tribe . One Urartian army had been completely annihilated , and the general Qaqqadanu taken prisoner . The Cimmerians were mentioned a number of times in letters by the crown-prince Sennacherib , who ran his father 's intelligence service , that unfortunately cannot be dated exactly , but are believed to have been composed before 713 BC . The letters relate how Sargon crossed the upper and lower Zab and moved over the mountains of Kullar in the direction of Lake Urmia , crossing the country of Zikirtu , whose ruler Metatti had fled to Uishdish , the provinces of Surikash , Allabria and parts of Parsuash . The reliefs show the difficulties of the terrain : the war-chariots had to be dismantled and carried by soldiers ( with the king still in the chariot ) , the latter describes how ways had to be cut into the intractable forests . After reaching Lake Urmia he turned east and entered Zikirtu and Andia on the Caspian slopes of the Caucasus . When news reached him that king Rusas I of Urartu ( 730 BC - 713 BC ) was moving against him , he turned back to Lake Urmia in forced marches and defeated an Urartian army in a steep valley of the Uaush ( probably the Sahend , east of Lake Urmia , or further to the south , in Mannaean country ) , a steep mountain that reached the clouds and whose flanks were covered by snow . The battle is described as the usual carnage , but King Rusas managed to escape . The horses of his chariot had been killed by Assyrian spears , forcing him to ride a mare in order to get away , very unbecoming for a king . Sargon plundered the fertile lands at the southern and western shore of Lake Urmia , felling orchards and burning the harvest . In the royal resort of Ulhu , the wine-cellar of the Urartian kings was plundered ; wine was scooped up like water . The Assyrian host then plundered Sangibuti and marched north to Van without meeting resistance , the people having retreated to their castles or fled into the mountains , having been warned by fire-signals . Sargon claims to have destroyed 430 empty villages . After reaching Lake Van , Sargon left Urartu via Uaiaish . In Hubushkia he received the tribute of Nairi . While most of the army returned to Assyria , Sargon went on to sack the Urartian temple of the god Haldi and his wife Bagbartu at Musasir ( Ardini ) . The loot must have been impressive ; its description takes up fifty columns in the letter to Ashur . More than one ton of gold and five tons of silver fell into the hands of the Assyrians ; 334 , 000 objects in total . A relief from Dur-Sharrukin depicted the sack of Musasir as well ( that unfortunately fell into the Tigris in 1846 when Paul-Émile Botta transported his loot to Paris ) . Musasir was annexed . Sargon claims to have lost only one charioteer , two horsemen and three couriers on this occasion . King Rusa was understandably despondent when he heard of the loss of Musasir , and fell ill . According to the imperial annals , he took his own life with his own iron sword , like a pig . In 713 BC Sargon stayed at home ; his troops took , among others , Karalla , Tabal and Cilicia . Some Mede rulers offered tribute . In 711 BC , Gurgum was conquered . A rising in Ashdod , supported by Judah , Moab , Edom and Egypt was suppressed , and Ashdod became an Assyrian province . In 710 BC Sargon felt safe enough in his rule to move against his Babylonian arch-enemy . One army moved against Elam and her new king Shutruk-Nahhunte II ( Shutur-Nahundi ) ; the other , under Sargon himself , against Babylon . Sargon laid siege to Babylon , and Marduk-apla-iddin fled . He was finally captured in the swamps of the Shatt-el-Arab ( though as he seems to have proven a thorn in the side of Sennacherib later on , this might not have been quite true ) . Southern Babylonia , settled by nomadic Aramaic tribes , was conquered and turned into the province of Gambulu . After the capture of Marduk-apla-iddin , Babylon yielded to Sargon and he was proclaimed king of Babylonia in 710 , thus restoring the dual monarchy of Babylonia and Assyria . He remained in Babylon for three years . In 709 BC , he led the new-year procession as king of Babylon . He had his son , crown-prince Sennacherib , married to the Aramaic noblewoman Naqi'a , and stayed in the south to pacify the Aramaic and Chaldean tribes of the lower Euphrates as well as the Suti nomads . Some areas at the border to Elam were occupied as well . In 710 , the seven kings of Ia ' ( Cyprus ) had accepted Assyrian sovereignty ; in 709 Midas , king of Phrygia , beset by the nomadic Cimmerians , submitted to Assyrian rule and in 708 , Kummuhu ( Commagene ) became an Assyrian province . Assyria was at the apogee of its power . Urartu had almost succumbed to the Cimmerians , Elam was weakened , Marduk-apla-iddin was momentarily powerless , and the Egyptian influence in Syria was temporarily waning as well . Sargon preferred Nineveh to the traditional capital at Ashur . In 713 BC he ordered the construction of a new palace and town called Dur-Sharrukin ( House of Sargon , Khorsabad ) , 20 km north of Nineveh at the foot of the Gebel Musri . Land was bought , and the debts of construction workers were nullified in order to attract a sufficient labor force . The land in the environs of the town was taken under cultivation , and olive groves were planted to increase Assyria 's deficient oil-production . The town was of rectangular layout and measured 1760 by 1635 m . The length of the walls was 16 , 280 Assyrian units , corresponding to the numerical value of Sargon 's name . The town was partly settled by prisoners of war and deportees under the control of Assyrian officials , who had to ensure they were paying sufficient respect to the gods and the king . The court moved to Dur-Sharrukin in 706 BC , although it was not completely finished yet . In 705 BC , Sargon fell in a campaign against the Cimmerians , who were later to destroy the kingdoms of Urartu and Phrygia before moving even further west . Sargon was followed by his son Sennacherib ( Sin-ahhe-eriba , 704 BC - 681 BC ) . Under his rule the Assyrians completed the defeat of the Kingdom of Israel , capturing Samaria after a siege of three years and dispersing the inhabitants . This became the basis o f the legend of the Lost Ten Tribes . See also Sargon of Akkad External links Great Inscription of Khorsaband . Babilonian and Assyrian Literature Sargon’s VIII Campaing take me back ! Preceded by : Shalmaneser V King of Assyria 722–705 BC Succeeded by : Sennacherib Preceded by : Marduk-apal-iddina II King of Babylon 710–705 BC Categories : 705 BC deaths | Assyrian kings | Babylonian kings | Tanakh monarchs In other languages : Deutsch | Eesti | Français | 日本語 | Magyar | Nederlands | Norsk ( bokmål ) | Polski | Português | Suomi | Svenska 