A large number and a wide variety of sources are attested for the reign of Sargon II. His inscriptions provide substantial information on both his military actions and building activities.[1] Two chronographic texts — the Assyrian Eponym Chronicle and a Babylonian Chronicle — as well as statements within some of the royal inscriptions as to the regnal year (palû) in which various events took place, provide the basic chronology of the period. Moreover, numerous letters and at least one astrological report date to his reign, some found at Nineveh (Parpola, SAA 1; Lanfranchi and Parpola, SAA 5; Hunger, SAA 8 no. 501; Fuchs and Parpola, SAA 15; and Dietrich, SAA 17) and others at Kalḫu (Luukko, SAA 19). While most were written to Sargon, including some from his son Sennacherib (Parpola, SAA 1 nos. 29–40; and Lanfranchi and Parpola, SAA 5 no. 281), a number were sent by Sargon himself. In addition, various legal and administrative documents (see Kwasman and Parpola, SAA 6; Fales and Postgate, SAA 7; and Fales and Postgate, SAA 11), and one renewal of a grant of land to provide offerings for the god Aššur (Kataja and Whiting, SAA 12 no. 19) are attested.[2] A few literary works refer to Sargon: two hymns — one to the goddess Nanāya and one to the goddess Ningal — that invoke blessings upon Sargon (Livingstone, SAA 3 no. 4; and Saggs, Studies Cagni pp. 905–912), a very fragmentary epic (Livingstone, SAA 3 no. 18), and the famous "Sin of Sargon" text, which most probably dates to the time of his grandson Esarhaddon (Livingstone, SAA 3 no. 33). A large number of stone wall slabs with reliefs depicting military and ceremonial actions were found in Sargon's palace at Khorsabad (ancient Dūr-Šarrukīn), as were a large number of bull-headed winged colossi with inscriptions on them. He is, however, mentioned only once in the Bible; Isaiah 20:1 states: "In the year that the field marshal, who was sent by Sargon, the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod, attacked Ashdod and took it." This likely refers to the capture of that city in Sargon's eleventh regnal year (711). He is almost totally absent from classical sources, although he does appear in the Ptolemaic Canon as Arkeanos (for which see below).
1 For studies of the style and structure of Sargon's royal inscriptions, see Renger, CRRA 32 pp. 109–128 and Studies Moran pp. 425–437.
2Kataja and Whiting, SAA 12 no. 77 refers to decrees about offerings from several different reigns, including Shalmaneser IV, Adad-nārārī III, Tiglath-pileser III, and Sargon II. For a list of the few economic texts dated by the regnal years of Sargon II from Babylonia, see Brinkman and Kennedy, JCS 35 (1983) p. 13, to which add W 24405 (Kessler, Bagh. Mitt. 23 [1992] pp. 465–467). The astrological report mentioned above (Hunger, SAA 8 no. 501) was likely sent from Babylonia since it was dated in the first year of "Sargon, king of Babylon."
Grant Frame
Grant Frame, 'Sources for Reign', RINAP 2: Sargon II, Sargon II, The RINAP 2 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2021 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap2/rinap2introduction/sources/]