Synopsis: Rusa of Urartu wins early victories against Assyrian armies, but his intrigues in the Zagros kingdom of Mannea earn him Sargon’s wrath. After a crushing defeat by Cimmerian invaders, Rusa’s unable to prevent Sargon’s destruction of his kingdom. “I caused there to be lamentation in the wide land Urartu and in all the mountains, and I made Rusa, their king, use flint blades, razors (and) scalpels to slash himself in mourning for as long as he lived. I made Musasir part of the territory of Assyria and assigned it to the authority of a eunuch of mine, the palace herald. The awesome splendor of the god Assur, my lord, overwhelmed Rusa, the Urartian, and so with his own iron dagger he stabbed himself in the heart like a pig and put an end to his life.” – The Annals of Sargon II Map of the Iron Age Near East: https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/Map_Near_East.jpg Map of the Iron Age Zagros Mountains: https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/Map_Zagros_Enhanced.jpg Episode Images: https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/C29_Images.pdf References and Further Reading: https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/C29_References.pdf Please contact [email protected] if you would like to advertise on this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices