Extensive operations, chiefly in Ararat, are recorded for 716 b.c., in which year also Bêl-šarra-uṣur, the city-chief of Kišešim, a Median province, was deposed, and his territory added to the boundaries of Assyria, together with several other west-Median districts. Among these was Ḫarḫar, whose city-chief was driven away by the Assyrian king. This city was re-peopled with prisoners of war, and its name having been changed to Kar-Šarru-ukîn, made the capital of the province. The war against Ararat continued during the next year, resulting in the submission of Yanzû king of [pg 368] Na'iri or Mesopotamia. On the east, a rebellion in Ḫarḫar was put down, and the city fortified as a defence against Media. In this year people of Tumadu, Ibâdidu, Marsimanu, Ḫayapâ, and the remote Arbâa (Arabs?), an unlettered tribe which had never paid tribute to an Assyrian king, were overthrown, and the survivors transported to Samaria. The receipt of tribute from Pir'u king of Muṣuru, Samsi queen of Aribbu (Arabia), It'amra of the land of the Sabâa (Sabeans), kings of the sea-coast and the desert, consisting of “gold, the produce of the mountain, precious stones, ivory, seeds of the ûšû-tree, all kinds of spices, horses and camels,”[102] is recorded.
To all appearance, Pir'u of Muṣuru is regarded as one of the kings of the sea-coast and the desert, but whether this is evidence against his being Pharaoh of Egypt or not, may be doubted. Egypt is as much a country of the sea-coast as any part of Palestine, but it is naturally on the south shore of the Mediterranean, and not on the east.
714 b.c. saw the continuance of the war with Ararat and its allies, and seems to have resulted in its becoming an Assyrian province. In 713 expeditions were made, among other places, to west Media and Cilicia. In 712 b.c. he found himself obliged to proceed against Tarḫunazi of Meliddu, who, driven from his capital by the Assyrians, shut himself up in Tilgarimme, which had been identified with the Biblical Togarmah. This city, having been conquered, was repeopled with the nomad Sutî[103] and placed under Assyrian rule.
At this time, as Sargon says, he received the treasure (?) of the land of Heth (the high-lands of Syria), among the things sent being copper, iron, lead or tin, white marble from the Amanus mountains, royal garments of the colour of uknû-stone (lapis-lazuli), [pg 369] something which came from the mountain Ba'il-ṣapuna (Baal-zephon), “a great mountain,” and silver, which, in consequence of the large consignments received at Dûr-Sargina (Khorsabad), became in value like copper. The next year (711 b.c.) an expedition against Muttallu, son of Tarḫulara, one of the kings of “the land of Heth,” took place. The son had killed his father and mounted the throne, hence the necessity for this campaign.
A similar expedition also took place to Ashdod. It happened that Azuri, king of the district of which Ashdod was the capital, had withheld the tribute agreed upon, and Sargon had therefore deposed him, and set his brother Aḫi-miti in his place. The following is Sargon's own account of this, and the sequel—
“Azuri, king of Asdudu, planned in his heart not to send tribute, and sent to the kings around hostile expressions (towards) the land of Aššur, and on account of the evil he had done, I changed his dominion over the people of his land. Aḫi-miti, his brother next in order, I appointed to the kingdom over them. Men of Ḫattî,[104] speaking treachery, hated his dominion, and raised up over them Yaana, a usurper, who like themselves knew no reverence for the dominion. In the anger of my heart I went hastily with the chariot of my feet and my cavalry, which for security quit not my side, to the city Asdudu, the city of his dominion, and the city Asdudu, the city Gimtu, (and) the city Asdudimma I besieged (and) captured. The gods dwelling in the midst of them, himself, with the people of his land, gold, silver, (and) the property of his palace, I counted as spoil. Their cities I rebuilt,[105] and settled therein the people of the lands captured by my hands. I placed my commander-in-chief as governor over them, and counted [pg 370] them with the people of my land, and they bore my yoke.”
Another inscription calls Yaana by the name of Yawani, and states that, hearing from far of the advance of the Assyrian army, he fled to the border of Muṣuru, which lies on the boundary of Meluḫḫa, and there hid himself. The king of Meluḫḫa seems thereupon to have feared for his own land, and placing Yatna in chains, sent him to Assyria. A third text referring to this campaign adds the following details—
“(People) of the land of Pilište (Philistia), the land of Yaudu (Judah), the land of Udumu (Edom), the land of Ma'abi (Moab), dwellers by the sea, bringers of the tribute and the gift of Aššur my lord, (for) sedition-mongering without measure, and evil, which was against me to cause hostility, unto Pir'u, king of the land of Muṣri, a prince who could not save them, they brought their homage-offering, and asked him for aid. I, Sargina, the true prince, fearing the oath of Lag-gi (= Nebo) and Merodach, keeper of the commands of the god Aššur, caused (my troops) to cross the Tigris and the Euphrates at high water, the fulness of the flood, as on dry land. And he, Yawani, their king, who trusted to his own power, and had not submitted to my dominion, heard from afar of the march of my expedition, and the glory of Aššur, my lord, overthrew him, and ... of the region of the river ... depth of the waters ... possession (?) of his land ... afar ... he fled ... Asdudu....”
In this, too, there is a reference to Pir'u, here called king of Muṣrí, either Egypt, or that mysterious and otherwise unknown kingdom to whose help so many trusted.
The years 710 and 709 b.c. were devoted to the operations against Merodach-baladan, the Chaldean prince who had made himself master of Babylonia. This is the Merodach-baladan who is referred to in 2 Kings xx. 12, but as his embassy really belongs to [pg 371] a somewhat later date, reference will be made to it in its place. Suffice it here to say that he was a usurper on the Babylonian throne, head of the Chaldean tribe called Bît-Yakîn, and one of the most influential chieftains of the district. To all appearance, the Babylonians themselves (as in earlier days when they tried to seize the throne) preferred the Assyrians to the semi-barbarous Chaldeans and Arameans, with whom they were, in fact, in too close connection to have any great respect for. It is needless to say that this entirely fell in with the ambition of the kings of Assyria, who, from the time of Tukulti-Ninip, if not earlier, had desired, and sometimes obtained, dominion over Babylonia. Sargon, the successor of two kings of Assyria who were acknowledged to be at the same time kings of Babylonia, naturally regarded himself as inheriting that crown in virtue of his being king of Assyria, whilst the Babylonians themselves were probably not displeased with the idea that they formed part of the world-renowned and powerful Assyrian empire, whose kings spoke the same language as themselves, and with whose religion they were in sympathy. Thus it happened, therefore, that in the course of the operations against Merodach-baladan, success frequently crowned the arms of the Assyrians, and the inhabitants of Babylon, sending to Dûr-Ladinna, where Sargon was staying, brought him in solemn possession to Babylon, where he made the prescribed offerings to the gods, took up his abode in Merodach-baladan's palace, and received the tribute of the Babylonian tribes which he had subjugated. He still continued, however, his operations against Merodach-baladan, who was by no means willing to give up the struggle, to which there could be one end only, namely, the overthrow of the Chaldean king, which took place in 709 b.c.