- 21 Jun 2016 01:14
#14693458
Nobody has written about Sargon of Akkad. I did a search and there is nothing on this website. How unjust to Sargon. So I will tell his story.
Chronological data from outlying settlements in Ebla, Tell Brak, Nippur, Susa, and Tell Leilan fix the Akkadian dynasty from 2270 to 2083 BCE. Sargon rules from 2270 to 2215. No one has yet found Akkad but it is presumed to be somewhere around modern day Baghdad on one of the two rivers, the Tigris or Euphrates.
There is an Assyrian tradition that Sargon tells the story of his birth as being illegitimately to a priestess, and she put him into a coffin-like basket, and set him on the river to float away. The story had credence since we know Catholic nuns disposed of their own childbirths during Medieval times as well, so it is not unthinkable. The basket was fished out of the river by a civil servant who raised Sargon as his son and gardener. From that point with easy access to the local king, Sargon usurped the crown and renamed himself with a pretentious accolade. Whether it is common for ancient girls to dispose of their childbirths this way, or whether the story of Moses is a plagiarism of it, we cannot know.
Sargon is remarkable because he was the first warlord king to conquer other kingdoms around him in Mesopotamia forming the first empire, from the modern Persian Gulf to the modern Mediterranean Sea. We will never know the real name that Akki the water drawer gave him because the ancient king list does not tell us. "Sargon" simply means "true king" which he was not -- he was an usurper.
Sargon claims that his mother was "Entu" the high priestess, however we don't really know that either. It may or may not be true. After he became king he may have wanted to secretly know who she was so he set out to find out.
The gods of his time were Enlil the "lord of the wind" and Inanna the "lady of the sky". Thus in Sargon's days gods had consorts. It was not logical for gods to exist alone. Only Medieval European philosophy would later create a One True God for the west who existed alone, to be adopted by the Catholic popes and engraved upon the minds of modern mankind. Anciently such a god did not exist.
Sargon was a strong king for over 50 years and presumably a great warlord. His warriors numbered 5,400 -- roughly 10 Roman cohorts or 54 centuries -- about half the size of a legion. This corresponds to a modern Army infantry brigade (or Marine regiment).
In his old age all the lands revolted against him and they besieged him at Akkad, but he went forth to battle and destroyed their vast army.
Sargon predates even Hammurabi, who was a king who influences us even to this day with his codified laws.
Sargon himself was thus the first creator of an empire -- a kingdom of kings. And Sargon would have been the first king of kings, a title coveted later by Persians, Greeks, and Romans. He influenced us by showing the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Spanish, British, and French that empires were possible and profitable.
I presume everyone has heard of Sargon. I remember learning his name/pseudonym in high school world history and again in NROTC military history.
If you have heard, what else have you heard? Is there anything that I left out?
Chronological data from outlying settlements in Ebla, Tell Brak, Nippur, Susa, and Tell Leilan fix the Akkadian dynasty from 2270 to 2083 BCE. Sargon rules from 2270 to 2215. No one has yet found Akkad but it is presumed to be somewhere around modern day Baghdad on one of the two rivers, the Tigris or Euphrates.
There is an Assyrian tradition that Sargon tells the story of his birth as being illegitimately to a priestess, and she put him into a coffin-like basket, and set him on the river to float away. The story had credence since we know Catholic nuns disposed of their own childbirths during Medieval times as well, so it is not unthinkable. The basket was fished out of the river by a civil servant who raised Sargon as his son and gardener. From that point with easy access to the local king, Sargon usurped the crown and renamed himself with a pretentious accolade. Whether it is common for ancient girls to dispose of their childbirths this way, or whether the story of Moses is a plagiarism of it, we cannot know.
Sargon is remarkable because he was the first warlord king to conquer other kingdoms around him in Mesopotamia forming the first empire, from the modern Persian Gulf to the modern Mediterranean Sea. We will never know the real name that Akki the water drawer gave him because the ancient king list does not tell us. "Sargon" simply means "true king" which he was not -- he was an usurper.
Sargon claims that his mother was "Entu" the high priestess, however we don't really know that either. It may or may not be true. After he became king he may have wanted to secretly know who she was so he set out to find out.
The gods of his time were Enlil the "lord of the wind" and Inanna the "lady of the sky". Thus in Sargon's days gods had consorts. It was not logical for gods to exist alone. Only Medieval European philosophy would later create a One True God for the west who existed alone, to be adopted by the Catholic popes and engraved upon the minds of modern mankind. Anciently such a god did not exist.
Sargon was a strong king for over 50 years and presumably a great warlord. His warriors numbered 5,400 -- roughly 10 Roman cohorts or 54 centuries -- about half the size of a legion. This corresponds to a modern Army infantry brigade (or Marine regiment).
In his old age all the lands revolted against him and they besieged him at Akkad, but he went forth to battle and destroyed their vast army.
Sargon predates even Hammurabi, who was a king who influences us even to this day with his codified laws.
Sargon himself was thus the first creator of an empire -- a kingdom of kings. And Sargon would have been the first king of kings, a title coveted later by Persians, Greeks, and Romans. He influenced us by showing the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Spanish, British, and French that empires were possible and profitable.
I presume everyone has heard of Sargon. I remember learning his name/pseudonym in high school world history and again in NROTC military history.
If you have heard, what else have you heard? Is there anything that I left out?