101 A NEW HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FALL OF SAMARIA 4) The quelling of the conflict by Sargon II (in the winter of 722 BCE) 5) The battle with the Elamites at Der (720 BCE) 6) The battle with the West (720 BCE) 7) The second conquest of Samaria by Sargon II (720 BCE) The two-conquest model places the internal conflict in Assur before Sar- gon II’s second ampaign in 720 BCE. However, the Assur Charter, which is esteemed to be “superior to all other Annalistic sources of Sargon as to his- torical reliability and exactness of dating” 13, describes a different chrono- logical order. According to this inscription, Sargon II’s campaign in the Westland took place before the domestic crisis in Assur. Lines 27-28 are connected sequentially in the Assur Charter (K. 1349). Translation 14: 16. In my second regnal year when I sat on the throne of kingship and with the crown of lordship … 17. I defeated the forces of Humbaigash, king of Elam and established his de- feat … 18. The Hamathite, not the (legitimate) lord of throne, not fitting for the palace, whose destiny as a shepherd of people … 19. against Assur, his land and his people walked along with evil not good, and brought … 20. assembled Arpad and Samaria and brought over to his side… 21. … a life not … 22. … in order to conquer Hamath … 23. … I confronted and Assur the god … 24. … accepted my supplication … 25. … directed toward the Westland. Hamath … 26. … an ancient (city?) which had earned fame … 27. … I made the Westland bow down at my feet … 28. I brought to my city Assur and carried due to the utterance … 29. They came to my aid for Assur, city of privilege of ancient dynasty … 30. the exalted cultic center which Assur its lord had chosen as the bond of the regions of the world … 31. which has been unrivalled since ancient time, whose people had not known military and civilian corvée. [Shalmaneser,] 32. who does not fear the King of the Universe, brought his hand into that city for evil … 33. whose people bitterly military and civilian corvée … people as a lower group … 13 TADMOR, “Campaigns”, 36. 14 Contrary to the translation in H.W.F. SAGGS, “The Aššur Charter”, 14- 15, the present study avoids any possible reconstructions of this severely bro- ken text.