History Lesson of the Week

This lovely fella to the left is Sargon the Great. Born somewhere in northern Mesopotamia (see map below), or northern Iraq today, sometime in the middle to late second millennium BCE (Before the Common Era). Around 2334, Sargon became the first emperor the world had ever seen, or at least that we knew of. It is unclear whether or not he truly shed much blood, or how large his army was (though clay tablets found report it to be around 5,400 men which would be a lot for 5,000 years ago), but we do know he pacified the otherwise unpacifiable southern Mesopotamia and brought together the north in a single empire which last through four generations of Sargonaids.

Westerners would instantly recognize the myth of Sargon's birth:  his mother was a high priestess (and his father was unknown) who had him in secret. To conceal his birth, she placed him in a basket and sent him upstream where a woman retrieved him and he became a gardener. The story diverges from the Mosaic legend here. For some reason, a king appointed him cupbearer. Subsequently, the king had a dream that Sargon would usurp his throne. It is unclear how he became king, or how he was able to subject other city-states to his rule. But, we know that c. 2334 BCE, he had become emperor of the "four corners of the world."

Sargon's achievements are numerous. For one, he provides future political entrepreneurs a key innovation in the pursuit of legitimacy: he invented a new capital city, Akkad. He built it anew, assigned a local deity to the city whose power was supreme over the entire region, and drew his bureaucrats from their natal homes to live in the new city. He separated the bureaucrats from kinship influence, one way to reduce corruption. Nearly every powerful king since then has chosen a new capital or built a new capital to demonstrate their divine power and control over nature and the people. A second innovation came when he made his daughter  Enheduanna, the high priestess for a key god. The reasons behind this political move was to secure a degree of power over the temple, the priests, and control their ability to put his power into check. Obama did something similar to Hillary Clinton.

Upon Sargon's death around 2215 BCE, his son tried to keep the empire together. As is typical, the son fails to a large degree, but Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin does succeed at pulling it back together and expanding it. In a serious power grab, Naram-Sin declares himself a god; as such, the temples, which were literally considered the houses of the gods, belonged to Naram-Sin and the priests were officially under his purview. By the end of his rule, modern day Iran had already begun to revolt, the priests were likely pushing against his rule as well, and Naram-Sin's son Shar-Kali-Sharri survived about 20+ years before the empire brokedown into small, city-states.

Sargon's legacy does not live on today for numerous reasons. Because of this, I chose to highlight his impact this week. His political innovations, origins myth, and tactics survive today. But, his name and legacy are shrouded by historical ignorance. So, Sargon, I salute you.