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Few rulers in ancient Mesopotamia influenced the course of history more than Sargon I, also known as Sargon of Akkad (ruled ca. 2334-2279 BC). Rising to power from obscurity, from a city that has still not been located by archaeologists, Sargon led his people the Akkadians to conquer most of Mesopotamia, instituting many enduring changes in the process. Perhaps the most important, and certainly the most apparent, influence Sargon had on Mesopotamia was the introduction of the Akkadian language, which was still used over 2,000 after the king’s death. Sargon also influenced Mesopotamia in the shorter term by unifying the region under one dynasty and instituting changes to the religion and royal ideology that were followed by subsequent dynasties.

The manner in which Sargon came to rule over most of Mesopotamia was quite simple – he did it through warfare and by eliminating his most potent rival. Sometimes while Sargon was the King of Kish and Akkad, Lugalzagesi was the king of the powerful city of Uruk. Uruk had a long and illustrious history dating back to the Sumerians and the late fourth millennium BC and was still quite powerful in Sargon’s time. Lugalzagesi unified most of Mesopotamia under his rule, so when Sargon overthrew him, he had a ready-made empire in his hands. <ref> Kuhrt, pgs. 45-46</ref> A cuneiform historical text dated to the end of the Akkadian Dynasty describes how Sargon sieged Uruk and then took Lugalzagesi captive.

====The Akkadian Language====

Every important dynasty in Mesopotamia after the Akkadians, and some dynasties outside of Mesopotamia used the Akkadian language in their writings to some extent. The First Dynasty of Babylon (ca. 1894-1595 BC), of which the famous King Hammurabi (ruled ca. 1792-1750) was a member, used Akkadian for most of their important written texts and even the Hittites (ca. 1650-1207 BC), who built their empire to the north of Mesopotamia in Anatolia, wrote many Hittite-Akkadian bilingual texts. <ref> Mieroop, p. 122</ref> The later Kassite (ca. 1374-1155 BC), Neo-Assyrian (934-609 BC), and Neo-Babylonian (625-539) dynasties all used Akkadian for their religious and historical texts. Many of the documents that describe Sargon’s legendary origins have been dated to the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. <ref> Pritchard, p. 119</ref> Finally, even monumental inscriptions during the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) usually used Akkadian along with Old Persian, Elamite, and sometimes Egyptian. The Akkadian language had its most significant influence, though, during the Late Bronze Age.

Akkadian was the primary written language used in Mesopotamia long after Sargon’s death, but it also became the <i>lingua franca</i> of the greater Near East during the Late Bronze Age. By about the year 1500 BC, the most powerful kingdoms of the Near East – Egypt, Kassite Babylon, Mitanni, Assyria, and Hatti – all developed extensive trade networks and diplomatic ties. To communicate, all of the major kingdoms, as well as the minor kingdoms that served as buffer states, wrote to each other in Akkadian. A cache of over 300 Akkadian diplomatic tablets was discovered in the Egyptian city of Tel el-Amarna (ancient Aketaten) in 1887. The letters reveal the details of this early global system that used Akkadian as the primary language. <ref> Moran, William L. <i>The Amarna Letters.</i> (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. xiii</ref> Along with the Akkadian diplomatic letters discovered in Egypt, scores of Akkadian literature tablets have been discovered outside of Mesopotamia, including the Hittite capital of Hattusa, the Levant cities of Ugarit and Megiddo, and Amarna. The use of Akkadian eventually became so widespread that all of the original Mesopotamian myths were translated from Sumerian into Akkadian. <ref> Meiroop, p. 116</ref>

When all of the many great kings of ancient Mesopotamian history are considered, few can compare in their overall influence with Sargon of Akkad. Sargon took a previously unknown city-state to the pinnacle of power, creating a dynasty that affected Mesopotamia for centuries. Sargon did this through sheer force, unifying most Mesopotamia through war and then by initiating reforms to the government and religion. But the most enduring influence Sargon had on Mesopotamia was the introduction of the Akkadian language, which became the primary written language of ancient Mesopotamia and was for a time the <i>lingua franca</i> of the ancient Near East’s elite class. Truly, few individuals in ancient Mesopotamia were as influential as Sargon of Akkad.

====References====

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