In this paper, I not only question the validity of the Assyrian claim that Rusa committed suicide but also present some ideas about the identity of the ruler of Urartu whom Sargon claims to have defeated and who allegedly “with his hand ended his life with his iron girdle dagger”. 1 The earliest account describing what happened to Rusa (whose name was written in Assyrian texts as Ursā) 2 is Sargon’s Letter to the god Assur (Sg 8). 3 According to this text, which was composed soon after the end of Sargon’s Eighth Campaign and is dated by the name of the eponym of 714 BC, Sargon defeated Ursa at the battle of Mount Waush and the Urartian king led into the mountains. His fate was described as follows (Sg 8: 151): “he was thrown into bed like a woman in labour and he cut of food and water from his mouth. He imposed on himself an incurable illness.” Sargon went on to capture the holy city of Musasir that the Urartians called Ardini. There he looted the palace and the temple of the god Haldi, who was also the chief god worshipped by the Urartians. Sargon took captive the family of Urzana, the ruler of Musasir, as well as the city god Haldi and his consort and deported them to Assyria.