Sargon II
c. 722 BCE · Dur-Šarrukin
Sargon II (r. 722–705 BCE) ruled Assyria at the height of its empire, campaigning across the Levant, Babylonia, Urartu, and the Zagros. The city of Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, fell in 722 BCE — the year he took the throne; the conquest is credited in his own inscriptions, though it is usually placed at the very end of Shalmaneser V's reign, with Sargon reasserting control around 720 BCE. He built a new capital, Dur-Šarrukin ('Fortress of Sargon,' modern Khorsabad), adorned with monumental winged-bull gateways and palace reliefs. He died on campaign — an event that troubled Assyrian theology — and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib.
Did you know?
He built a brand-new capital — and it was barely lived in
King Sargon II of Assyria built an entirely new capital from scratch, Dur-Sharrukin ('Fortress of Sargon'), completing much of it in about a decade (roughly 717–706 BCE). Soon after he moved in, he was killed on campaign around 705 BCE; his successor shifted the capital to Nineveh, and the gleaming new city was largely abandoned.
How we know
Dur-Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad) built c.717–706 BCE; Sargon II occupied the palace 706 BCE and died on campaign 705 BCE; successor Sennacherib moved the capital to Nineveh, leaving the city largely abandoned.
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Dur-Šarrukin
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About Dur-Šarrukin
The short-lived capital built by Sargon II (modern Khorsabad) northeast of Nineveh. The pin marks where the tablet or inscription was found.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Sargon II’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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