LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sargon: Empires
built 276 days ago
Sargon and his successors, of whom Naram-Sin was the most notable, controlled by military force an area which reached from Tell Brak, on the headwaters of the Habur river, down to Elam, where they held the local princes subject. Like the later kings of Assyria, they ventured as far as the Mediterranean, and drew on the cedar supplies of the Amanus mountains in northern Syria and established the first great empire known to history.
Source:
Sargon was one of the first people in recorded history to create an empire, or multi-ethnic state. His empire included the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and part of what is present-day Turkey.
Source:
Sargon II, upon his accession, took the name Sharrukin (Sargon is the biblical form), after the illustrious founder of the Akkadian dynasty, who had died 1,600 years before. This name and the fact that his predecessor, Shalmaneser V, reigned very briefly suggest that Sargon may have been a usurper. His first task was to restore order and overcome opposition at home; he then turned to the problems facing his army on the frontiers of the empire. He captured Samaria, the Israelite capital, and deported its inhabitants; next he defeated the rebel Syrian vassels at Qarqar. In the northeast, the turbulent Iranian tribes had been stirred into revolt by Assyria's old enemy, the Kingdom of Urartu. Punitive campaigns between 719 and 717 B.C. restored order, but trouble broke out again, and in 715 Sargon, in a demonstration of strength, marched round Lake Urmia to Van, Urartu's capital.
Source:
Sargon passed power to his son, creating a new dynasty of kings. Around 2150 BCE, during the rule of Sargon's grandson, Naramsin, a wave of nomads called Gutians, from the east, overran Agade and Sumer. Why Naramsin was unable to defeat the invaders is unknown. His empire may have been weakened by drought and famine or by plague. But like the Sumerians, the Akkadian people saw adversity as the work of displeased gods, and they interpreted the Gutian invasion as the result of their goddess Inanna having left their city because of Naramsin's sins.
Source:
Following his conquests, Sargon felt he had the coffers and the manpower to defeat Zagissi, and soon enough invaded lower Sumer, hitting Erech in a suprise attack. Erech's defenders, apparently, ran and Sargon razed the city walls. Erech's army then faced Sargon... it was routed and mostly destroyed in pitched battle. Zagissi organized a relief force and marched south to meet Sargon in battle, and the ensuing conflict appeared to have been located near Erech. The following happenings are unclear, however, it seems that Zaggisi was defeated and his body sent to Uruk, and the walls of Uruks razed as well. Following this battle, Sargon continued his campaign north and captured the remaining cities of Zaggasi's Sumerian Empire.
Source:
Sargon established his capital near Kish, at a city called Agade, [note] and his kingdom became known as Akkad - derived from the name Agade. His warriors became an aristocracy that lived off the taxes collected from conquered farmers and artisans. And his empire became commercial, with fortresses at strategic points along its trade routes. These were times in West Asia (the Middle East) when bronze weapons had replaced those of stone, and supplying an army with bronze weapons required control over trade routes that gave access to the tin and copper from which bronze is made. Perhaps responding to this need for tin and copper, Sargon extended his empire northwest into Syria, and some scholars speculate that he crossed the Taurus Mountains and extended his empire into the center of Asia Minor. He placed governors throughout his empire to rule in his name.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Empires