Akkadian Empire

The first empire anyone built, and the model for the idea that one ruler could govern many cities. Sargon of Akkad took power around 2334 BCE - the later legend has him a gardener's foundling set adrift in a reed basket, a story Moses inherited - and conquered the Sumerian cities one by one, installing his own governors rather than accepting tribute from local kings. That distinction is what makes it an empire rather than a hegemony. He reached the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, claimed the title king of the four quarters, and standardised weights, dating and administration across the whole territory, with Akkadian replacing Sumerian as the language of government. His daughter Enheduanna, high priestess at Ur, wrote hymns that survive under her name, making her the earliest author in world literature who is individually identified. The empire lasted around a hundred and eighty years and collapsed under internal revolt and Gutian incursion, in a period a long-standing theory links to a sudden regional drought. Akkad's capital has never been found. Its bronze head of a ruler was looted from Baghdad's museum in 2003. The empire ran from about 2334 to 2154 BCE. Akkadian is the oldest attested Semitic language and remained the diplomatic language of the Near East for over a thousand years. Sargon's name means the true king, which suggests he was not the obvious heir. The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin shows a king climbing a mountain over his enemies. Later Mesopotamian rulers measured themselves against Sargon for two millennia.

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