Sargon
    (In the inscriptions, "Sarra-yukin" [the god] has appointed the
    king; also "Sarru-kinu," the legitimate king.) On the death of
    Shalmaneser (B.C. 723), one of the Assyrian generals established
    himself on the vacant throne, taking the name of "Sargon," after
    that of the famous monarch, the Sargon of Accad, founder of the
    first Semitic empire, as well as of one of the most famous
    libraries of Chaldea. He forthwith began a conquering career,
    and became one of the most powerful of the Assyrian monarchs. He
    is mentioned by name in the Bible only in connection with the
    siege of Ashdod (Isa. 20:1).

      At the very beginning of his reign he besieged and took the
    city of Samaria (2 Kings 17:6; 18:9-12). On an inscription found
    in the palace he built at Khorsabad, near Nieveh, he says, "The
    city of Samaria I besieged, I took; 27,280 of its inhabitants I
    carried away; fifty chariots that were among them I collected,"
    etc. The northern kingdom he changed into an Assyrian satrapy.
    He afterwards drove Merodach-baladan (q.v.), who kept him at bay
    for twelve years, out of Babylon, which he entered in triumph.
    By a succession of victories he gradually enlarged and
    consolidated the empire, which now extended from the frontiers
    of Egypt in the west to the mountains of Elam in the east, and
    thus carried almost to completion the ambitious designs of
    Tiglath-pileser (q.v.). He was murdered by one of his own
    soldiers (B.C. 705) in his palace at Khorsabad, after a reign of
    sixteen years, and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib.



 Sargon, who takes away protection