103 A NEW HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FALL OF SAMARIA granted by Shalmaneser III and were taken away after the insurrection of 763 BCE 18. It is therefore interesting to observe that Sargon blamed Shal- maneser V for imposing ilku and tupšikku on the city of Assur in his ear- liest inscription even though Sargon clearly stated in his later inscription that the abolition of privilege in Assur was from a distant past. I restored the exemption from taxation in the cities of Assur and Harran, which had fallen from distant past into oblivion, and their privilege had been cast aside 19. To be sure, the abolition of tax exemption or certain privileges for a particular city was dependent on the explicit decision of a king. Chamaza rightly states that “such privileges were not always in existence in the city of Assur” 20. According to the Assyrian and Babylonian Letters 442, this is evidenced by a letter addressed to Esarhaddon, To the king [our] lo[rd], your [ser]vants the m[ayors (and) El]ders o[f the city of Assur]. […] Now, from the house of the [governor] they have appointed officials over the Inner City; they are exacting corn (and) straw taxes. You are the true seed of Sennacherib; Assur and Shamash have blessed you, your son, your son’s son, generation to gen- eration: you exercise kingship over us. So, by your goodness, re[move] our corn taxes from us, re[move] our straw taxes from us 21. In reality, the ilku and tupšikku duties imposed on the city of Assur had been customary long before and even during the reign of Shalmaneser V. Consequently, two essential questions should be raised. Why did Sargon II raise the issue of corvée service in the ancient capital city of Assur in an allegation against Shalmaneser V? Why did 6,300 “guilty” Assyrian army personnel make a revolt against Sargon II at the early period of his reign? To answer these questions, we need to discuss briefly the uncertain identity of Sargon II. It is by no means a simple task to identify who he was, since Sargon rarely revealed his genealogical connection with the earlier Assyrian kings in his extant royal inscriptions. This tendency is in contrast to other legitimate Assyrian kings’ customary proclamations 18 A.T. OLMSTEAD, Western Asia in the Days of Sargon of Assyria, 722-705 BC (CSHPS 2; New York 1908) 32, n. 27. 19 F.H. WEISBACH, “Zu den Inschriften der Sale im Palaste Sargons II von Assyrien”, ZDMG 72 (1918) 176-179; G.W.V. CHAMAZA, “Sargon II’s Ascent to the Throne: The Political Situation”, State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 6 (1992) 21-33, 27. 20 CHAMAZA, “Sargon II’s Ascent”, 28. 21 J.N. POSTGATE, Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire (Rome 1974) 276-277.