Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad on his victory stele

Sargon of Akkad (Akkadian: 𒊬𒊒𒄀, Šarrugi; died c. 2279 BC), called the Great and the Elder, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC. He is sometimes identified as the first person in recorded history to rule over an empire.

Quotes about Sargon

Akki as his husbandman placed me,
and in my husbandry Ishtar prospered me.

• Sargina the powerful King, King of Agade am I.
  My mother was enceint, my father knew not (of it).
  My father's brother oppressed the country.
  In the city of Azupirani, which by the side
  of the Euphrates is situated, she conceived me;
  my mother was enceint, and in a grove brought me forth;
  she placed me in a cradle of wicker,
  with bitumen my exit she closed, and launched me
  on the river, which away from her carried me.
  The river to Akki the Abal floated me,
  Akki the Abal in tenderness of bowels lifted me;
  Akki the Abal as his child brought me up;
  Akki the Abal as his husbandman placed me,
  and in my husbandry Ishtar prospered me ...
  45 years, the kingdom I took.
  The people of the dark races I ruled.
  • "Legend of Sargon". Translated by George Smith, Records of the Past, vol. 5 (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1874), p. 56. Different translations: Henry Smith Williams, The Historians' History of the World, vol. 1 (London: Encycl. Brit. Co., 1904), p. 360 · James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1955), p. 119

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Sargon of Akkad on Wikipedia