Sargon II

Sargon II ruled Assyria from 722 to 705 BC and took the name of a legendary king of a millennium earlier, which suggests he had no strong claim to the throne. He probably seized it during the siege of Samaria, and faced immediate revolt across the empire. He completed the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, taking Samaria and deporting some 27,000 of its inhabitants to Mesopotamia and Media according to his own inscriptions — the event behind the tradition of the ten lost tribes — and resettling other populations in their place. He defeated the Elamite and Babylonian coalition under Merodach-baladan, eventually taking Babylon in 710 BC and having himself recognised as its king, which Assyrian rulers generally handled with care given the city's prestige. His most celebrated campaign was against Urartu in 714 BC, recorded in a long letter addressed to the god Ashur. It describes crossing the Zagros mountains, a night march, the destruction of the Urartian army, and the sack of the temple city of Musasir with an inventory of the plunder. It is among the most detailed military narratives to survive from the ancient Near East. He built an entirely new capital, Dur-Sharrukin, at modern Khorsabad — a walled city of about three hundred hectares with a palace decorated in carved reliefs and guarded by colossal winged bulls, constructed in about ten years. He was killed on campaign in Anatolia in 705 BC and his body was not recovered, which Assyrians regarded as a catastrophe requiring explanation. The new capital was abandoned almost immediately.

• Lived: 770 BCE – 705 BCE
• Nationality: Iraqi
• Roles: ruler, military_leader