Sargon I was history's first emperor, the legendary founder of the empire of Akkad. Akkad stretched across Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf to the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Sargon conquered the cities of Sumer, one of the most advanced early civilizations, founding what has been described as history's first multi-ethnic state. The empire of Akkad, named for its capital city (which has never been discovered), was the first Semitic kingdom. His rule lasted from approximately 2334 to 2279 BCE.

Sargon's life and reign are only known from later Mesopotamian legend; the city of Akkad has never been excavated and stories about him were recorded for hundreds of years after his death. As the story goes, Sargon was born to an unwed priestess and an unknown father, and his mother left him floating in a basket in the Tigris river, a legend similar to that of Moses but much earlier, and probably historically related. He was found and raised by a gardener in the city-state of Kish, and joined the army, where he rose through the ranks to become cupbearer to Kish's king. The separate city states of Sumer had been gradually conquered by the king of the central city-state of Uruk. Sargon then fought and defeated Uruk's king, Lugal-Zage-Si, and thus became king of Sumer.

Each of the once-independent city-states of Sumer resisted his rule, and Sargon laboriously defeated each one again, uniting Sumer under a Semitic dynasty. He then led the military to win much of Syria, the Taurus Mountains of southern Anatolia, and then Susa, the capital city of Elam. His empire now encompassed many peoples and was many times the size of Sumer. His military prowess and leadership allowed him to trade far and wide, with Lebanon, Oman, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent. Akkad achieved great wealth under his rule, and according to legend he was a just king, defending the lower classes and protecting the middle class of merchants, once sending the army to Asia Minor to protect traders from the interference of a local ruler. Akkad's unrivaled prosperity and widespread trade were Sargon's most impressive accomplishments.

His reign lasted for fifty-six years, according to Mesopotamian record. The later years of his reign were filled with rebellions of the city-states he ruled. Modern speculation suggests that Sargon was not a powerful enough ruler to control as much land as he had conquered, in a sprawling empire with slow communication and slow travel. Legend attributes the decline of his reign to acts of sacrilege, but this is typical of Sumerian legend; it is far more likely that he simply could not create a strong enough administration to effectively rule such a large area.

His descendents maintained the empire of Akkad, though its greatest extent was during Sargon's rule. Akkad lasted for perhaps a century after his death, before it collapsed. Nevertheless, the story of his rule inspired subsequent legend, enough that he was the namesake for a future Assyrian king.

The legacy of Akkad

Following Akkad's collapse, there was a period about which little is known, in which foreigners from the Zagros ruled over Mesopotamia. A brief dynasty followed this period, about a century long, in which documents recorded in the Sumerian language reappear, although by this point Sumerian was probably no longer a living language. From around 2000 BCE Sumer passed into foreign rule, culminating in its unification under the city of Babylon by King Hammurabi.

The Sumerian language had what was probably the earliest form of writing to be developed, known as cuneiform, first written by scratching lines and then by pressing a wedge-shaped stylus into clay tablets. Sumerian cuneiform was largely logographic - that is, individual symbols stood for individual words. The Akkadians adapted this writing system to their own language, a very different one. The Sumerian writing system was modified to be largely phonographic - that is, a representation of sounds rather than individual words. This was an enormous advancement in writing, and the Akkadian writing system was part of the inspiration for the Semitic script, which is the origin of all subsequent alphabetic writing systems, including the Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Roman writing systems.

Sources

http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/map03sar.htm (map of the Akkadian Empire)
http://i-cias.com/e.o/sargon.htm
http://history-world.org/sargon_the_great.htm
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr214.htm (a translation of the Sargon Legend)
Writing Systems by Geoffrey Sampson