Sargon II
Assyrian
Sargon II and dignitary
Reign	722 – 705 BC
Predecessor	Shalmaneser V
Successor	Sennacherib
Royal House	Assyrian

Sargon II ( Akkadian Šarru-kên "legitimate king", Arabic: سرجون' reigned 722 – 705 BC) was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Babylonia in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family. In his inscriptions, he styles himself as a new man, rarely referring to his predecessors; however he took the name Sharru-kinu ("true king"), after Sargon of Akkad — who had founded the first Semitic Empire in the region some 16 centuries earlier.^[1] Sargon is the Biblical form of the name.

Early reign[link]

Beset by difficulties at the beginning of his rule, Sargon II made a pact with the Babylonian king Marduk-apla-iddina II. He was able to free all temples, as well as the inhabitants of the towns of Assur and Harran from taxes. While Sargon was thus trying to gain support in Assyria, Marduk-apla-iddina II conquered Babylon with the help of the new Elamite king Ummanigash and was crowned king in 721 BC.

Military campaigns[link]

In 720 BC Sargon moved against Elam, but the Assyrian army was defeated near Der. Later that year, Sargon defeated an Aramean coalition at Qarqar, thereby gaining control of Arpad, Simirra, and Damascus. Sargon conquered Gaza in Philistia, destroyed Rafah, and won a victory over Egyptian troops. On his return, he had Samaria rebuilt as the capital of the new province of Samerina and settled it with Assyrians.

In 717 BC he conquered parts of the Zagros mountains and the Syro-Hittite city of Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates. In 716 BC he moved against the Mannaeans, where the ruler Aza, son of Iranzu, had been deposed by Ullusunu with the help of the Urartuans. Sargon took the capital Izirtu, and stationed troops in Parsuash (the original home of the Persian tribe, on lake Urmia) and Kar-Nergal (Kishesim). He built new bases in Media as well, the main one being Harhar which he renamed Kar-Sharrukin. In 715 BC, others were to follow: Kar-Nabu, Kar-Sin and Kar-Ishtar — all named after Babylonian gods and resettled by Assyrian subjects.

A lamassu from the palace of Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin.

Palace of Khorsabad.

The eighth campaign of Sargon against Urartu in 714 BC is well known from a letter from Sargon to the god Ashur (found in the town of Assur, now in the Louvre) and the bas-reliefs in the palace of Dur-Sharrukin. The reliefs show the difficulties of the terrain: the war-chariots had to be dismantled and carried by soldiers (with the king still in the chariot); the letter describes how paths had to be cut into the intractable forests. The campaign was probably motivated by the fact that the Urartians had been weakened by incursions of the Cimmerians, a nomadic steppe tribe. One Urartian army had been completely annihilated, and the general Qaqqadanu taken prisoner.^[2]

After reaching Lake Urmia he turned east and entered Zikirtu and Andia on the Caspian slopes of the Caucasus. When news reached him that king Rusas I of Urartu was moving against him, he turned back to Lake Urmia in forced marches and defeated a Urartian army in a steep valley of the Uaush (probably the Sahend, east of Lake Urmia, or further to the south, in Mannaea country), a steep mountain that reached the clouds and whose flanks were covered by snow. The battle is described as the usual carnage, but King Rusas managed to escape. The horses of his chariot had been killed by Assyrian spears, forcing him to ride a mare in order to get away, very unbecoming for a king.

Sargon plundered the fertile lands at the southern and western shore of Lake Urmia, felling orchards and burning the harvest. In the royal resort of Ulhu, the wine-cellar of the Urartian kings was plundered; wine was scooped up like water. The Assyrian army then plundered Sangibuti and marched north to Van without meeting resistance, the people having retreated to their castles or fled into the mountains, having been warned by fire-signals. Sargon claims to have destroyed 430 empty villages.

After reaching Lake Van, Sargon left Urartu via Uaiaish. In Hubushkia he received the tribute of the "Nairi" lands. While most of the army returned to Assyria, Sargon went on to sack the Urartian temple of the god Haldi and his wife Bagbartu at Musasir (Ardini). The loot must have been impressive; its description takes up fifty columns in the letter to Ashur. More than one ton of gold and five tons of silver fell into the hands of the Assyrians; 334,000 objects in total. A relief from Dur-Sharrukin depicted the sack of Musasir as well (which fell into the Tigris in 1846 when the archaeologist Paul-Émile Botta was transporting his artifacts to Paris). Musasir was annexed. Sargon claims to have lost only one charioteer, two horsemen and three couriers on this occasion. King Rusa was said to be despondent when he heard of the loss of Musasir, and fell ill. According to the imperial annals, he took his own life with his own iron sword.

In 713 BC Sargon stayed at home; his troops took, among others, Karalla, Tabal and Cilicia. Some Mede rulers offered tribute. In 711 BC, Gurgum was conquered. An uprising in the Philistine city of Ashdod, supported by Judah, Moab, Edom and Egypt, was suppressed, and Ashdod became an Assyrian province.

Under his rule, the Assyrians completed the defeat of the Kingdom of Israel, capturing Samaria after a siege of three years and exiling the inhabitants. This became the basis of the legends of the Lost Ten Tribes. According to the Bible, other people were brought to Samaria, the Samaritans, under his predecessor Shalmaneser V (2 Kings 18). Sargon's name actually appears in the Bible only once, at Isaiah 20:1, which records the Assyrian capture of Ashdod in 711 BC.

Campaign against Babylonia[link]

In 710 BC Sargon felt safe enough in his rule to move against his Babylonian arch-enemy Marduk-apla-iddina II. One army moved against Elam and its new king Shutruk-Nahhunte II; the other, under Sargon himself, against Babylon. Sargon laid siege to Babylon, and Marduk-apla-iddina II fled. He was said to have been captured in the swamps of the Shatt al-Arab (though, as he seems to have proven a thorn in the side of Sennacherib later on, this might not have been quite true). Southern Babylonia, settled by nomadic Aramaean tribes, was conquered and turned into the province of Gambulu.

After the capture of Marduk-apla-iddina II, Babylon yielded to Sargon and he was proclaimed king of Babylonia in 710, thus restoring the dual monarchy of Babylonia and Assyria. He remained in Babylon for three years; in 709 BC, he led the new-year procession as king of Babylon. He had his son, crown-prince Sennacherib, married to the Aramaic noblewoman Naqi'a, and stayed in the south to pacify the Aramaic and Chaldean tribes of the lower Euphrates as well as the Suti nomads. Some areas at the border to Elam were occupied as well.

Later reign[link]

Human-headed winged bull, found during Botta's excavation.

In 710, the seven kings of Ia' (Cyprus) had accepted Assyrian sovereignty; in 709, Midas, king of Phrygia, beset by the nomadic Cimmerians, submitted to Assyrian rule and in 708, Kummuhu (Commagene) became an Assyrian province. Assyria was at the apogee of its power. Urartu had almost succumbed to the Cimmerians, Elam was weakened, Marduk-apla-iddina II was momentarily powerless, and the Egyptian influence in the Levant was temporarily waning as well.

Building projects[link]

Sargon chose Nineveh rather than the traditional capital at Assur. In 713 BC he ordered the construction of a new palace and town called Dur-Sharrukin ("House of Sargon"), 20 km north of Nineveh at the foot of the Gebel Musri. Land was bought, and the debts of construction workers were nullified in order to attract a sufficient labor force. The land in the environs of the town was taken under cultivation, and olive groves were planted to increase Assyria's deficient oil production. The town was of rectangular layout and measured 1760 by 1635 m. The length of the walls was 16,280 Assyrian units, corresponding to the numerical value of Sargon's name. The town was partly settled by prisoners of war and deportees under the control of Assyrian officials, who had to ensure they were paying sufficient respect to the gods and the king. The court moved to Dur-Sharrukin in 706 BC, although it was not completely finished yet.

Death[link]

In 705 BC, Sargon fell in a campaign against the Cimmerians, who were later to destroy the kingdoms of Urartu and Phrygia before moving even further west. Sargon was succeeded by his son Sennacherib (Sin-ahhe-eriba, 705 – 681 BC).

See also[link]

Ancient Near East portal

• Kings of Assyria
• Annals of Sargon

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, ""Shutting Up" the Enemy: Literary Gleanings from Sargon's Eighth Campaign," in Mordechai Cogan and Dan'el Kahn (eds), Treasures on Camels' Humps: Historical and Literary Studies from the Ancient Near East Presented to Israel Eph'al (Jerusalem, Magnes Press, 2008),

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sargon II

• Great Inscription of Khorsaband. Babilonian and Assyrian Literature
• Sargon’s VIII Campaign

Masashi Hamauzu
Background information
Born	(1971-09-20) September 20, 1971 (age 40) Munich, Germany
Genres	Classical, ambient, electronic
Occupations	Composer, lyricist
Instruments	Piano, vocals
Years active	1996–present
Labels	NTT Publishing DigiCube Square Enix Nippon Crown
Associated acts	Masashi Hamazu Chorus, Kaoru Wada, Yoko Shimomura

Masashi Hamauzu (浜渦正志, Hamauzu Masashi^?, born September 20, 1971) is a Japanese video game composer who was employed at Square Enix from 1996 to 2010. He is best known for his work on the Final Fantasy and SaGa series. Born into a musical family in Germany, Hamauzu was raised in Japan. He became interested in music while in kindergarten, and got piano lessons from his parents.

Hamauzu was hired by Square (now Square Enix) as a trainee, and his debut as a solo composer came the following year when he scored Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon. He has collaborated with his friend and fellow composer Junya Nakano on several games, and has worked closely with synthesizer programmer Ryo Yamazaki on most titles since SaGa Frontier 2.

After Nobuo Uematsu left Square Enix in 2004, Hamauzu took over as the leading composer of the company's music team. He was the sole composer for Final Fantasy XIII. He has also become a renowned piano arranger, and has arranged a number of albums, including Yasunori Mitsuda's Sailing to the World piano score in 2006. His music incorporates various styles, although he mostly uses classical and ambient music in his pieces. In 2010, Hamauzu left Square Enix to start his own studio, Monomusik.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Born in Munich, Germany, Masashi Hamauzu's mother was a piano teacher and his father, Akimori Hamauzu, an opera singer.^[1][2] He developed an interest in music while in kindergarten.^[3] Growing up in Germany, Hamauzu received piano and singing lessons from his parents and created his first original compositions during high school. After his brother was born, the family moved to Osaka, Japan. He enrolled in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he joined a student ensemble as a pianist. Hamauzu met his wife, Matsue Hamauzu (née Fukushi), at the university, and they have two children. Matsue worked alongside Hamauzu on the soundtrack to Final Fantasy VII as a soprano and Sigma Harmonics as a scat singer; she was also a soprano for the score to Final Fantasy VIII & a lead vocalist in Final Fantasy XIII. After graduating from the university, he thought about becoming a classical musician, but he eventually found out that he wanted to work with game music instead.^[1]

Career[link]

A fan of the Final Fantasy games,^[4] Hamauzu decided to apply for a job at Square. Nobuo Uematsu was impressed with his résumé, and employed Hamauzu as a trainee in 1996.^[1] His debut came with the 1996 title Front Mission: Gun Hazard, with Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Junya Nakano.^[5] Later the same year, he created four tracks for another multi-composer game, Tobal No. 1.^[6] Working with Nakano on these games, Hamauzu admired his musical style, and they became friends; they have later collaborated on several titles.^[1] Hamauzu's first solo project came in 1997 with Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon.^[7] Shortly after the title's release, Hamauzu and Yasuo Sako created Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Coi Vanni Gialli, an arranged album containing orchestral tracks from the game's music.^[8] Both the soundtrack and Coi Vanni Gialli were praised. For Final Fantasy VII, Hamauzu was the synthesizer programmer for the rendition of Joseph Haydn's "The Creation", and provided bass vocals in the eight-person chorus for "One-Winged Angel".^[1]

In 1999, Hamauzu was assigned with scoring SaGa Frontier 2, replacing the SaGa series' long-time composer Kenji Ito.^[9] He spent some time conforming to the music Ito had established for the series, but eventually realized that he wanted to use his own unique style. The project introduced him to synthesizer programmer Ryo Yamazaki, whom he has worked with on most of his subsequent soundtracks.^[1] Hamauzu also released Piano Pieces "SF2" ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2, an arranged album featuring piano pieces of the game's music.^[10] In 2001, Hamauzu and Nakano were chosen to assist Uematsu in the production of the score for the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy X,^[11][12] based on their ability to create music that was different from Uematsu's style.^[13] Hamauzu also contributed the Piano Collections arranged album of the game, which he described as his most challenging work, and the track named "feel", an arrangement of "Hymn of the Fayth", from the EP feel/Go dream: Yuna & Tidus.^[1]

In 2002, Hamauzu composed the music for Unlimited Saga, a game that would be received negatively by critics due to a variety of gameplay issues.^[14][15] He became the leading composer of Square Enix's music team in October 2004, following Uematsu's departure from the company. In 2005, Hamauzu, Nakano, and the duo Wavelink Zeal (Takayuki and Yuki Iwai) scored Musashi: Samurai Legend, the sequel to the 1998 title Brave Fencer Musashi.^[16] Hamauzu composed the highly anticipated but critically unsuccessful Final Fantasy VII follow-up, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, in 2006.^[17][18] Later the same year, he arranged the Sailing to the World Piano Score at the request of Mitsuda;^[19] the album was well-received by pianists and confirmed Hamauzu's position as the leading piano arranger of game music.^[1]

Hamauzu released a solo album, Vielen Dank, in 2007 after recording it in Munich, Germany. The album includes eleven piano pieces that he composed for personal pleasure after the creation of Piano Pieces "SF2" ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2 as well as 14 arrangements of his game compositions.^[20] Two tracks from the album were performed at the 2007 Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig.^[21] In 2008, he composed the soundtrack to Sigma Harmonics^[22] with synthesizer programmer Mitsuto Suzuki rather than Yamazaki.^[1] At the 2006 E3 event, a Square Enix press conference revealed that Hamauzu would be returning to the Final Fantasy series, scoring Final Fantasy XIII.^[23] He left Square Enix on January 19, 2010.^[24] He went on to form his own studio, Monomusik, which he describes as a personal studio that does not include any other composers.^[25]

Musical style and influences[link]

Hamauzus composes music in many different styles, often using multiple styles throughout the various pieces of a soundtrack. He mostly creates classical and ambient music, and uses the piano predominantly as an instrument. He frequently incorporates dissonance to provide an atmospheric effect.^[26] In Unlimited Saga, for example, the style of his compositions mix classical marches, tango music, electronic ambiance, instrumental solos, and jazz.^[27]

He cites animation composers Hiroshi Miyagawa and Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra,^[3] impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy,^[1] and his father as major musical influences.^[28] During his adolescence, he enjoyed listening to the works of Sakamoto and Miyagawa. While attending university, he developed an appreciation for classical music, especially the compositions of Ravel and Debussy.^[1]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Masashi Hamauzu Official Website (Japanese)
• Square Enix Music Japan profile (Japanese)
• Square Enix Music North America profile