Conquests of Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad was the first ruler to carve out an empire by conquest. Establishing a power base in his own city at Akkad, he then conquered the powerful city of Uruk, seizing hegemony over all the other city-states of Sumer. He came to control the rest of Mesopotamia as far as Ebla in Syria, creating an empire covering roughly the area of modern-day Iraq. His campaigns may well have extended as far as Cyprus and Anatolia. Although later sources credit him with around a 54-year reign, actual dated documents have been found for only four different year-names in his reign. The year-names describe campaigns waged against Elam, Mari, and Simurrum (a Hurrian region).

One inscription tells that he won 34 battles; another suggests that he had a standing army, recording that "5,400 soldiers eat bread before him each day". Sargon's infantry probably used bronze weapons and composite bows, and he would have also possessed four-wheeled chariots pulled by asses. This army could cope with siege warfare, since records tell of Sargon destroying the walls of the cities he captured. Sargon died about 2284 BCE and his empire survived for more than 125 more years. Later Mesopotamians regarded him as the founder of the region's tradition of expansion by military conquest as exemplified by Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, and the Persian Empire.