The March of Sargon II

[The Wizard]

I found this somewhere on the endless stretch of the Internets, namely the website All Empires:

This is part of the inscription of Sargon II in the Palace of Khorsabad:

21. I attacked and conquered KIBABA, Prefect of the town of Kharkhar, I took him and the inhabitants of his country captive, I rebuilt this city and made the inhabitants of the provinces, that my arm had conquered, live there. I placed my Lieutenant as Governor over them. I named the town Kar-Sarkin j I established the worship of the god ASSUR, my Master, there. I erected an image of my Royal self. I occupied 6 towns in the environs, and added them to his government.
22. I besieged and took the towns of Tel-Akhi-tub, Khindau, Bagai, and Anzaria; I transported the inhabitants of them to Assyria. I rebuilt them; I gave them the names of Kar-Nabu, Kar-Sin, Kar-Ben, and Kar-Istar.
23. To maintain my position in Media, I have erected fortifications in the neighbourhood of Kar-Sarkin. I occupied 34 towns in Media and annexed them to Assyria and I levied annual tributes of horses upon them.
24. I besieged and took the town of Eristana, and the surrounding towns in the country of Bait-Ili ; I carried away the spoil.

I think Kharkhar is the same Khalkhal, a large city in the north west of Iran, Bagai should be Baga (modern Baku) capital of Azerbaijan, Anzaria seems to be Anzali, the largest Iranian port on the western shore of the Caspian Sea and Eristana is modern Heris/Heristan in the east of Tabriz.

There are several towns called, or once called, Kharkhar, and all of them are in Iran, as far as I know. Some are far closer to Sargon's heartland of Assyria than the Kharkhar in this map, but still -- did the Assyrians really penetrate this deeply into the Iranian plateaux? Or anywhere near this far?

[Conqueror]

Sargon fought wars and conquered cities as far as Samaria and Tarsus in the West and to the coast of the Persian Gulf in the South. Pure distance to the shores of the Caspian sea would hardly stop him. The mountaineous terrain would pose problems, but Sargon was successful in his war against Urartu in just such environment. So I wouldn't think it impossible for the Assyrians to reach even the towns on that map.

[The Wizard]

I didn't know that. Yet did he hold on to them? Seems like a weak possibility to me. No matter how advanced the Mesopotamians, this is still the 8th century BC.

[Gurkhal]

Depends on how you define "hold". He could've just kicked them around long enough for them to submitt and then leave them as a vassal-state without necissery holding a fixed presence.

[Conqueror]

Holding on to conquered territory for long periods of time seems to have been a major problem in general during this era. The Assyrians often had to subjugate the same foes over and over. The city of Babylon alone was a major hotspot of trouble for them, and the Syrians and peoples of the Levant were all too happy to revolt given half a chance (not to mention proper "encouragement" from Assyria's enemies, such as Egypt).

[The Wizard]

That might've been a product of their much-maligned bloody measures of repressing subversion in their empire, though. Mishandled, it could easily backfire, just like with Timur almost two milennia later.

With "hold" I meant "directly rule from Assyria," by the way. Leaving it at vassalization is getting off easy for Sargon