Oldest Stories3 Des 2025

The Ascendency of Sargon II

Sargon II of Assyria faces a crisis of legitimacy after a humiliating defeat, but transforms potential disaster into triumph through military genius and calculated brutality. This episode chronicles his desperate 720 BCE campaign from Mesopotamia to the Levant, where he perfects combined arms warfare and decimates Samaria so thoroughly that ten tribes of Israel vanish from history.

Following his controversial rise to power, Sargon must prove divine favor through victory or lose everything. Watch as he masters siege warfare with unprecedented tactical sophistication, deploying battering rams under coordinated covering fire to crack fortress walls that stymied his predecessors. His lightning campaign against Yahu-Bihdi's coalition demonstrates the Assyrian war machine at peak efficiency—mass deportations, public flayings, and systematic urban destruction become instruments of imperial control.

The episode explores Sargon's subsequent campaigns along Assyria's contested frontiers, from the fragmenting Mannean kingdom in the Zagros Mountains to rebellious Tabal under Phrygian influence. Detailed correspondence reveals the mechanics of ancient border warfare, including an elaborate ruse involving fake fortress construction to ambush Urartian raiders. We examine how Sargon manipulates succession crises, deploys intelligence networks, and uses overwhelming force—sometimes fielding armies larger than entire city populations—to maintain imperial dominance against Urartu, Phrygia, and internal dissent.

The narrative culminates with the mysterious fall of Carchemish, the last Neo-Hittite vassal, whose wealth funds Sargon's most ambitious project yet: a new capital city that will bear both his glory and an ominous curse.

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Episoder(234)

The Bottom of the Mesopotamia Iceberg

An examination of the deepest level of the Ancient Mesopotamia iceberg, commonly labeled "Theories and Speculative Ideas." The video reviews each claim against primary sources from Sumer, Akkad, Babyl...

1 Jul 51min

Sennacherib Builds a Paradise in Nineveh

Sennacherib is remembered as one of the most powerful kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but his greatest legacy may not have been conquest. It was Nineveh: a rebuilt imperial capital of canals, garden...

17 Jun 39min

Lachish and How an Assyrian Siege Worked

Its the siege of Lachish, but also a much more wide ranging explanation of Assyrian siegecraft more generally. Including how it was recognizably modern and, in many ways, responsible for modernity.

3 Jun 51min

Sennacherib vs Hezekiah in 701 BCE: Isaiah and the Battle of Eltekeh

In 701 BCE, Assyrian king Sennacherib launched his western campaign against Judah, bringing him into direct conflict with King Hezekiah and the political counsel of the prophet Isaiah. The decisive fi...

6 Mai 44min

Babylon Had It Coming

Babylon had survived five destructions before Sennacherib tried to erase it for good. Why did Assyria's most bookish king — a man who loved Babylonian scholarship — finally flood the city and smash it...

22 Apr 1h 3min

Sennacherib's Inheritance

Sennacherib is remembered in the Bible as a villain, the Assyrian king who invaded Judah and stood against Jerusalem. But that reputation, like his father Sargon’s as a world conqueror, may be mislead...

8 Apr 37min

The Doom of Sargon II

This episode examines the final major campaign of Sargon II of Assyria (reigned 722–705 BCE) and the long conflict with the Chaldean ruler Marduk-apla-iddina II (Merodach-Baladan) for control of Babyl...

25 Mar 34min

AI and History

How does one "do" history, and can an AI do it? The answers:1. You don't "do" history, you feel it.2. AI can do the actions of history, but it can't feel it.Bonus rant: I never liked the idea that the...

18 Mar 21min