…Harran from taxes.

While Sargon is thus trying to gain support in Assyria, …

…Marduk-apla-iddina conquers Babylon with the help of the new Elamite king Ummanigash and is crowned king in 721 BCE.

Sargon, beset by difficulties at the beginning of his rule, makes a pact with Marduk-apla-iddina.

Sargon moves against Elam in 720 BCE, but the Assyrian host is defeated near Der.

Sargon defeats a Syrian coalition at Qarqar later in 720 BCE, thereby gaining control of Arpad, Simirra, and Damascus.

King Ping of Zhou had appointed Duke Zhuang of Zheng “Left Advisor,” but Ping's successor, King Huan, removed him from office.

In return for this slight, Duke Zhuang refused to go to the capital to meet with King Huan, who then led a coalition in 707 BCE against Zhuang.

Duke Zhuang's army humiliates the king, defeating the royal army and inflicting an arrow wound on Huan's shoulder.

The Middle East: 717–706 BCE

Sargon II and the Imperial Capital of Dur Sharrukin

In 717 BCE, the Assyrian king Sargon II embarks upon an expansive series of military and political campaigns that reshape the Near Eastern geopolitical landscape. His conquests begin notably with the capture of the strategically critical Neo-Hittite city-state of Carchemish in the same year. Sargon continues these campaigns vigorously, and in 714 BCE, he launches a decisive expedition against the northern kingdom of Urartu, successfully defeating its forces and incorporating it firmly within the Assyrian imperial system. These victories strengthen Assyrian dominance in the north, securing its frontiers and further consolidating imperial control.

As a symbolic testament to his power and administrative vision, Sargon II constructs a meticulously planned new capital city named Dur Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon") in 713 BCE. Situated at the present-day site of Khorsabad, approximately twelve miles (twenty kilometers) northeast of Mosul, Iraq, the city exemplifies Assyrian imperial might and grandeur. Dur Sharrukin is encircled by thick, fortified walls punctuated by guard towers, with colossal human-headed winged bulls (lamassu) of carved stone guarding each of its seven monumental gateways.

At its heart, the upper citadel contains Sargon’s grand palace, adorned with rooms of varying sizes built around courtyards, richly decorated with sculpted bas-reliefs and vividly painted scenes portraying royal hunts, military triumphs, and ceremonial rites. Nearby stands a prominent ziggurat, its stepped structure constructed from vibrant, colored bricks. The lower citadel houses official residences, administrative buildings, and a temple dedicated to the god Nabu. By 710 BCE, Sargon formally relocates the Assyrian capital to this new city, marking a significant administrative and symbolic shift in the empire.

Conflict and Diplomacy with Phrygia under Midas (Mita)

Concurrent with Assyrian ascendancy, the powerful kingdom of Phrygia, centered at Gordium along the upper Sakarya River valley, expands its territorial and cultural influence across central and western Anatolia during the eighth century BCE. Under the reign of King Midas (known as Mita in Assyrian records), Phrygia achieves the height of its power. This historical Midas, who rules approximately from 720 BCE, presides over a prosperous kingdom renowned for its distinct "Polished Ware" pottery and the widespread use of a writing system derived from the Phoenician alphabet.

Phrygia maintains robust trade connections both eastward with Assyria and Urartu, and westward with the Greeks, with whom Midas fosters close diplomatic and cultural relationships—reputedly including marriage to an Aeolian Greek princess. Initially, tensions flare in 716 BCE when Midas foments rebellion against Assyrian rule in Cilicia. Sargon swiftly suppresses the uprising, yet by 709 BCE, Assyrian inscriptions indicate a diplomatic reconciliation, reflecting Phrygia’s pragmatic approach to coexistence with larger powers.

The Fall of Melid and Regional Instability

In the upper Euphrates region, the ancient Luwian Neo-Hittite kingdom of Melid (Kammanu) has thrived independently for several centuries from its capital along the Tohma River. Previously forced into tribute by Assyrian incursions as early as the eleventh century BCE under Tiglath-Pileser I, Melid manages to prosper until its decisive sack by Sargon II in 712 BCE. This destruction coincides with regional turmoil driven by invasions of Anatolia by nomadic groups such as the Cimmerians and Scythians, accelerating Melid’s decline and leading to widespread instability.

Babylonian Affairs and Chaldean Resistance

Further south, in Babylonia, Sargon confronts persistent resistance led by the Chaldean prince Marduk-apla-iddina II, ruler of Babylon. After prolonged conflict involving alliances between Marduk-apla-iddina and powers such as Elam, Aram, and Israel, Sargon finally drives him from power around 710 BCE. Rather than complete destruction, however, Sargon strategically allows the deposed monarch to retain leadership of his tribal base, ensuring some degree of stability and loyalty among the Chaldeans.

This period (717–706 BCE) thus marks a peak in Assyrian imperial strength and consolidation, exemplified by military conquests, administrative innovations, diplomatic maneuvers, and the construction of Dur Sharrukin—reflecting both the strategic brilliance and enduring legacy of Sargon II’s rule.

Sargon establishes a well-planned new capital, Dur Sharrukin (“Fortress of Sargon”) in 713 at the site of the present village of Khorsabad, twelve miles (twenty kilometers) northeast of Mosul in Iraq.

He surrounds his new city with a thick wall fortified with towers; huge, winged human-headed bulls of carved stone guard the seven entrances.

Built around courtyards, its variously sized rooms lined with sculptured and painted scenes of hunting, battles, and ceremonies, Sargon's palace stands, together with temples and a ziggurat with steps made of colored brick, on the upper terrace of the fortified citadel at the northwest wall.

Official residences and a temple to the god Nabu occupy the lower citadel; the imperial arsenal stands beside the southwest wall.

Sargon moves the Assyrian capital to the new location in 710.

The Phrygian kingdom, with its capital at Gordium in the upper Sakarya River valley, has expanded during the eighth century BCE into an empire dominating most of central and western Anatolia and encroaching upon the larger Assyrian Empire to its southeast and the kingdom of Urartu to the northeast.

A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears, and a system of writing in the Phrygian language develops and flourishes in Gordium, using a Phoenician-derived alphabet similar to the Greek one.

The powerful kingdom founded by the Phrygians is to last until the Lydian ascendancy in the early seventh century BCE.

Under kings alternately named Gordias and Midas, the independent Phrygian kingdom maintains close trade contacts with her neighbors in the east and the Greeks in the west.

Phrygia seems to have been able to coexist with whatever power is dominant in eastern Anatolia at the time.

The Assyrians had detached the eastern part of the Phrygian confederation by about 730, and the locus of power has shifted to Phrygia proper.

According to the classical historians Strabo Eusebius and Julius Africanus, the king of Phrygia during this time was another Midas.

This historical Midas is believed to be the same person named as Mita in Assyrian texts from the period and identified as king of the Mushki.

Scholars figure that Assyrians called Phrygians "Mushki" because the Phrygians and Mushki, an eastern Anatolian people, were at that time campaigning in a joint army.

This Midas is thought to have reigned Phrygia at the peak of its power from about 720 BCE to about 695 BCE (according to Eusebius) or 676 BCE (according to Julius Africanus).

In 716, Sargon of Assyria suppresses a rebellion in Cilicia fomented by Mita; an Assyrian inscription mentioning "Mita" as an ally, dated to 709 BCE, suggests Phrygia and Assyria had struck a truce by that time.

This Midas appears to have had good relations and close trade ties with the Greeks, and reputedly married an Aeolian Greek princess.

The city of Melid on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains, had from the twelfth to seventh century BCE become the center of an independent Luwian Neo-Hittite state of Kammanu, formed from part of Kizzuwatna after the collapse of the Hittite Empire.

A palace had been built and monumental stone sculptures of lions and the ruler erected.

The encounter of the kingdom of Melid with the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 BCE) had resulted in its being forced to pay tribute to Assyria.

Melid has been able to prosper until the Assyrian king Sargon II sacks the city in 712 BCE.

Around the same time, the Cimmerians and Scythians invade Anatolia and the city declines.

Sargon conquers Carchemish in 717 BCE.

The Assyrian king has spent his life in the field, campaigning not only in the west but also in the north, in present eastern Turkey, against the kingdom of Urartu, against whom he undertakes an expedition in 714.

Sargon’s account of this campaign details Urartu’s defeat and incorporation into the imperial system.