a large proportion of the city’s inhabitants and incorporated it in an Assyrian province.  Tabal revolted in 713 B.C. and was similarly dealt with.  In 712 B.C.  Milid had to be overcome.  The inhabitants were transported, and “Suti” Aramaean peoples settled in their homes.  The king of Commagene, having remained faithful, received large extensions of territory.  Finally in 709 B.C.  Midas of the Muski-Phrygians was compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of Assyria.  The northern confederacy was thus completely worsted and broken up.  Tribute was paid by many peoples, including the rulers of Cyprus.

Sargon was now able to deal with Babylonia, which for about twelve years had been ruled by Merodach Baladan, who oppressed the people and set at defiance ancient laws by seizing private estates and transferring them to his Chaldaean kinsmen.  He still received the active support of Elam.

Sargon’s first move was to interpose his army between those of the Babylonians and Elamites.  Pushing southward, he subdued the Aramaeans on the eastern banks of the Tigris, and drove the Elamites into the mountains.  Then he invaded middle Babylonia from the east.  Merodach Baladan hastily evacuated Babylon, and, moving southward, succeeded in evading Sargon’s army.  Finding Elam was unable to help him, he took refuge in the Chaldaean capital, Bit Jakin, in southern Babylonia.

Sargon was visited by the priests of Babylon and Borsippa, and hailed as the saviour of the ancient kingdom.  He was afterwards proclaimed king at E-sagila, where he “took the hands of Bel”.  Then having expelled the Aramaeans from Sippar, he hastened southward, attacked Bit Jakin and captured it.  Merodach Baladan escaped into Elam.  The whole of Chaldaea was subdued.

Thus “Sargon the Later” entered at length into full possession of the empire of Sargon of Akkad.  In Babylonia he posed as an incarnation of his ancient namesake, and had similarly Messianic pretensions which were no doubt inspired by the Babylonian priesthood.  Under him Assyria attained its highest degree of splendour.

He recorded proudly not only his great conquests but also his works of public utility:  he restored ancient cities, irrigated vast tracts of country, fostered trade, and promoted the industries.  Like the pious Pharaohs of Egypt he boasted that he fed the hungry and protected the weak against the strong.

Sargon found time during his strenuous career as a conqueror to lay out and build a new city, called Dur-Sharrukin, “the burgh of Sargon”, to the north of Nineveh.  It was completed before he undertook the Babylonian campaign.  The new palace was occupied in 708 B.C.  Previous to that period he had resided principally at Kalkhi, in the restored palace of Ashur-natsir-pal III.

He was a worshipper of many gods.  Although he claimed to have restored the supremacy of Asshur “which had come to an end”, he not only adored Ashur but also revived the ancient triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and fostered the growth of the immemorial “mother-cult” of Ishtar.  Before he died he appointed one of his sons, Sennacherib, viceroy of the northern portion of the empire.  He was either assassinated at a military review or in some frontier war.  As much is suggested by the following entry in an eponym list.