Sargonid dynasty

Sargonid dynasty liblibbi Šarru-kīn[a]
Royal family
Stele with a depiction of a Sargonid crown prince, c. 704–681 BC, exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Parent family	Adaside dynasty (?)
Country	Assyria Babylonia
Founded	722 BC
Founder	Sargon II
Final ruler	Ashur-uballit II
Titles	King of Assyria King of Babylon King of the Lands King of Sumer and Akkad King of the Four Corners King of the Universe King of the kings of Egypt and Kush
Traditions	Ancient Mesopotamian religion
Dissolution	c. 608–606 BC
Deposition	626 BC (Babylonia) 609 BC (Assyria)

The Sargonid dynasty was the final ruling dynasty of Assyria, ruling as kings of Assyria during the Neo-Assyrian Empire for just over a century from the ascent of Sargon II in 722 BC to the fall of Assyria in 609 BC. Although Assyria would ultimately fall during their rule, the Sargonid dynasty ruled the country during the apex of its power and Sargon II's three immediate successors Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC), Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (r. 669–631 BC) are generally regarded as three of the greatest Assyrian monarchs. Though the dynasty encompasses seven Assyrian kings, two vassal kings in Babylonia and numerous princes and princesses, the term Sargonids is sometimes used solely for Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal.

Though the Sargonid dynasty only encompasses the reigns of a few kings, their rule saw the borders of the empire grow to encompass the entire Ancient Near East, the East Mediterranean, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and parts of the Arabian peninsula and North Africa, and they witnessed the subjugation of rivals such as Babylonia, Elam, Persia, Urartu, Lydia, the Medes, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Israel, Judah, Phoenicia, Chaldea, Canaan, the Kushite Empire, the Arabs, and Egypt, as Assyria's rivals were either completely conquered or made vassals.

Following Sargon II's reconquest of Babylon in 710 BC, the Sargonids also periodically ruled as kings of Babylon, though they sometimes preferred to assign vassal kings. Babylon proved to be notoriously difficult to control, with the city and the surrounding lands in southern Mesopotamia repeatedly rebelling against the Sargonid kings despite various different methods being attempted to appease the Babylonians. The final such revolt, by Nabopolassar in 626 BC, succeeded in establishing a new independent kingdom, the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which would less than two decades later destroy the Neo-Assyrian Empire and end the rule of the Sargonid dynasty. The Babylonians allied with the Medes, also rivals of the Assyrians, and though the Medo-Babylonian war against the Assyrian Empire was indecisive at first, the Fall of Nineveh and the death of King Sinsharishkun in 612 BC was a death blow to the Assyrian Empire. Sinsharishkun's successor Ashur-uballit II rallied what remained of the Assyrian army at the city of Harran but lost the city to his enemies in 610–609 BC and was defeated attempting to retake it in 609 BC, ending the rule of the Sargonid dynasty and Assyria's nearly two-millennia long history as an independent political entity.

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