Iraq: Stone portal guardian or Lamassu (mythical winged guardian) from the Palace of Sargon II (r. 722-705 BCE), Dur Sharrukin, now Khorsabad (Louvre Museum, Paris)

Sargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became the ruler of the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE after the death of Shalmaneser V.

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. Sargon is the Biblical form of the name.

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