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Sargon II (Assyrian Šarru-ukīn (LUGAL-GI.NA 𒈗𒄀𒈾); Aramaic סרגן ;[1] reigned 722 – 705 BC) was an Assyrian king. A son of Tiglath-Pileser III, he came to power relatively late in life, possibly by usurping the throne from his older brother, Shalmaneser V.
he Neo-Assyrian pronunciation of the name was presumably /sargi:n(u)/ or /sarga:n(u)/; the spelling Sargon is based on the Biblical form of the name (סרגון), mentioned in Isaiah 20:1.[2] The regnal number is modern, applied for disambiguation from the Old Assyrian king Sargon I and the still-older Akkadian ruler Sargon the Elder.
Sargon was beset with widespread rebellions by the beginning of his rule.Marduk-apla-iddina II, a chieftain of the Chaldean tribes in the marshes of the south, declared himself king of Babylon and was crowned king in 721 BC. In 720 BC, Sargon and Marduk-apla-iddina met in battle on the plains east of Babylon. Marduk-apla-iddina was supported by Elam. The Elamite troops were able to push back the Assyrian army, and he retained control of the south and the title of king of Babylon
Sargon ultimately extended his conquests up the Euphrates to North Syria, and possibly even into Asia Minor. He also conquered Elam to the east of Babylonia, and gained control of northern Iraq, the area later known as Assyria. In one of the cities of Assyria there has been found a fine bronze mask which may have represented Sargon himself (13). Sargon's economic and political control of this unprecedently large area produced a marked rise in the standard of living of Babylonia, so that this period was remembered in tradition as a golden age.
The other great ruler of the Dynasty of Agade was the fourth, Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin. According to tradition, supported to some extent by archaeological evidence, Naram-Sin controlled an empire extending from Central Asia ,minor to the southern end of the Persian Gulf. Ultimately the dynasty collapsed before the combined pressures of peoples from the northern and eastern mountains, despite the vigorous action taken by Naram-Sin
With the collapse of the central government of Agade, northern Babylonia was occupied by a mountain people called the Gutians, a savage race regarded with marked aversion in later tradition. However, the Gutians probably had little influence in southern Babylonia, which was still predominantly Sumerian both in race and culture, and from this time the cities of this area once again rose to prominence. Under the Dynasty of Akkad, Agade had been the Principal port of the country, but with this eliminated by the Gutian conquest, trade, and the wealth resulting from it, began to flow up the Persian Gulf into the southern cities. One of the cities which flourished at this time and about which we are particularly well informed is Lagash, under its ruler Gudea (12). This ruler's greatest achievement (from his own point of view) was the rebuilding of the temple of the city god, and he left a considerable number of inscriptions relating to this.
PEOPLE called the Amorites are well known to readers of the Old Testament, where the term is used for one of the main groups of inhabitants of Palestine before the final entry of the Hebrews under Joshua. These Biblical Amorites were descendants of settlers who had come in from the desert several centuries before. They had formed part of a great group of peoples, called in cuneiform sources the Amurra (singular, An-iurru), on the move in the Syrian desert and threatening all the fertile lands from Palestine to Iraq. 'Amurru' was probably originally the name of a particular tribe, but it came to be used of the whole of a certain wave of invaders from the Syrian desert.
Amurru in an inscription from the Dynasty of Akkad. It comes from a document which refers to the year in which Sharkalisharri [Naram-Sin's son and successor] defeated the Amurru in Basar, Basar being a mountain in the Syrian desert. References to these Amurru become more frequent during the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur. One passage shows the contempt of the city dwelling Sumerian for the savage desert dweller, who is described as 'the Amurru, . . . who eats raw meat, who has no house in his lifetime, and after he dies lies unburied'. Quickly, however, these Amurru ceased to be despised desert savages and became a threat to the security, and finally to the very existence, of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Some of the rulers of that dynasty built fortifications against these people. Such measures did not, however, succeed in holding back the mounting pressure, and the ancient cities, first of the Middle Euphrates and then of Babylonia proper, gradually fell under the domination of these people.
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