King Sargon
By 2334 BC, one king came to dominate Mesopotamia. Sargon the Great. The Ancient form of Sargon’s name, was Šarru-kin, meaning “The Legitimate King.” This hints at certain things, leading historians to believe that Sargon the Great was a usurper. Cuneiform tablets suggest, In a Moses-Like legend, Sargon was an illegitimate son of a priestess. The Priestess put him into a basket and let him float away, where he was found by a gardener whom had then raised him. Then he went into the service of the King of Kish, as the cup bearer, in charge of wine. Enterprising, ambitious, and ruthless, Sargon overthrew the King of Kish and declared himself ruler. He also reigned at Agade, the city he built north of Sumer in the state of Akkad. With his Akkadian army, Sargon started to take control of southern Mesopotamia. His first conquest was the city of Uruk, where he conquered and humiliated the King Lugal-Zage-Si, by conquering it and then ruthlessly pulling the King away on a leash, which serves to exemplify his ruthlessness. He came to conquer other Southern Mesopotamian cities, and believed he could keep going. He wasn’t content to fight local battles, he wanted to take over the known world, and did just that, over a 56 year reign, he conquered North Mesopotamia, North Syria and eventually reached the Mediterranian to capture Southeast Turkey. He built the world’s first empire. He was the first king ever to occupy land of people with new personality. He was the King that set the ground rules for what it was to be an emperor, someone looked up to by other Kings, envied. His Empire, was unique in scale and organization. He tried to re-organize and unify a vast area and did so. Every city in Mesopotamia had it’s own system of weights and measures, and Sargon standardized those systems, and made it possible to have TRADE over vast distances. Sargon’s ideas were not limited to empire building, but also to the military. He was the first king whom claimed to have a standing army, drafted from all Empiric cities, 5400 men. A huge force at the time. He instituted a new tradition to help feed them all. Plundering. This would feed all of his troops. The army fed themselves from the land, so the campaigns were set to go when the harvest was completed throughout Mesopotamia. Outside of Akkad, not a member of the inner elite, every year you were faced with terror from Sargon’s army, knowing they would come. Sargon reigned until death in 2279 BC, and his dynasty continued to rule for 82 years.
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