WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are turning 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.400 back the clock. And I don't mean to the 80s or 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.980 the Victorian era. We were going way, way back. 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:10.939 Way, way back. We're talking about a figure who 00:00:10.939 --> 00:00:14.000 is, and this isn't an exaggeration, literally 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.320 the prototype for every conqueror, every emperor 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:19.780 who came after him. I mean, if you think about 00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:22.640 human history as a series of operating systems, 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:25.879 this guy is version 1 .0 of the concept of empire. 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:28.100 That's a really good way to put it. Yeah. It's 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:30.739 a fundamental paradigm shift in, you know, how 00:00:30.739 --> 00:00:33.200 human beings organize themselves. Right. Before 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:35.880 this point, you had city -states. You had powerful 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:38.880 cities. Sure, Uruk, Ur, Kish. But they were generally 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:41.399 self -contained bubbles. They stayed in their 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:43.500 own lane, so to speak. Exactly. They might fight 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:46.039 over a border or, you know, a water right, but 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:47.840 that was about it. Then this man comes along. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.299 And suddenly the whole map changes. You have 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:53.119 a central government controlling a massive multi 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:56.020 -ethnic territory. And we are talking about Sargon 00:00:56.020 --> 00:00:59.159 of Akkad, Sargon the Great. The stack of research 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:01.219 we have on him is just fascinating because it's 00:01:01.219 --> 00:01:03.799 this mix of, you know, hard archaeological evidence. 00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:07.359 Like actual cuneiform inscriptions. Yeah, actual 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:09.739 stone tablets and these incredible myths that 00:01:09.739 --> 00:01:11.819 were written down centuries later. But here's 00:01:11.819 --> 00:01:14.659 the hook that really got me. Sargon is often 00:01:14.659 --> 00:01:16.920 identified as the first person in recorded history 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.560 to rule over an empire. The first emperor. Right. 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:24.040 But there is a massive mystery right at the center 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:26.799 of his story. There is. And it's a paradox that, 00:01:26.819 --> 00:01:28.659 I mean, it still frustrates archaeologists to 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:33.140 this day. Sargon is the king of Akkad. Akkad 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:36.260 was his capital, the center of this new universe. 00:01:36.829 --> 00:01:38.530 He claimed to rule. The capital of the world. 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:41.569 The capital of his world, for sure. We have texts 00:01:41.569 --> 00:01:44.129 describing ships docking there from distant lands. 00:01:44.310 --> 00:01:46.290 We have tributes flowing into it. We have administrative 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:49.849 records. But to this day, the city of Akkad has 00:01:49.849 --> 00:01:52.189 never been archaeologically identified. You're 00:01:52.189 --> 00:01:55.069 kidding. No, we literally do not know where the 00:01:55.069 --> 00:01:57.469 most important city of the 24th century B .C. 00:01:57.489 --> 00:02:00.329 was located. That's wild. It's like knowing all 00:02:00.329 --> 00:02:02.129 about George Washington, but not being able to 00:02:02.129 --> 00:02:04.329 find Washington, D .C. It's very much like that. 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.299 It's a huge blank spot on the map. So our mission 00:02:07.299 --> 00:02:09.719 today is to unpack this legend. We're going to 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:11.919 look at how a man of, well, supposedly humble 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:15.000 origins, the son of a gardener, rose up to become 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.360 the king of the universe, founded a dynasty that 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:19.979 lasted a century, and became the legendary figure 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:22.379 that Mesopotamian kings modeled themselves after 00:02:22.379 --> 00:02:25.699 for 2 ,000 years. And to do that... were drawing 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:28.439 from a really diverse set of sources. We have 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:30.240 his own historical inscriptions, or at least, 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.520 you know, later copies of them. We have the Sumerian 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:35.340 king list, later Babylonian chronicles, and even 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:37.620 these legendary texts found in the library of 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:40.879 Ashurbanipal that read more like literature than 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:43.439 straight history. Okay, so let's start at the 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:45.560 very beginning. Let's talk about the name Sargon. 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:47.979 It just sounds strong, doesn't it? It sounds 00:02:47.979 --> 00:02:50.759 like a conqueror. But when you translate it, 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:52.319 it feels like he's trying to tell us something 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:55.000 specific. Or maybe convince us of something. 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.659 The name Sargon is actually the biblical or Hebrew 00:02:58.659 --> 00:03:02.800 form. The original Akkadian is Aruukin. Okay. 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:05.659 Or Arukan. And if we break that down, Sharu means 00:03:05.659 --> 00:03:08.199 king, and the second part, kinum or yukin, means 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:12.139 to confirm or to establish or to be true. So, 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:16.110 the king is true. Effectively, yes. The king 00:03:16.110 --> 00:03:18.509 is established or the legitimate king. The legitimate 00:03:18.509 --> 00:03:20.449 king. Okay, let's unpack that. Because if you 00:03:20.449 --> 00:03:22.449 have to walk around calling yourself the legitimate 00:03:22.449 --> 00:03:25.629 king, doesn't that sort of imply that maybe you 00:03:25.629 --> 00:03:28.250 aren't? Precisely. It is the classic irony of 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:31.650 the usurper. Right. A king who inherits the throne 00:03:31.650 --> 00:03:34.710 by blood, he usually has a name that honors a 00:03:34.710 --> 00:03:38.629 god or an ancestor. But a man who takes the throne 00:03:38.629 --> 00:03:42.009 by force, he needs a regnal name that serves 00:03:42.009 --> 00:03:45.039 as propaganda. Ah. So it's a title he gives himself. 00:03:45.219 --> 00:03:47.659 It's his brand. He's asserting his legitimacy 00:03:47.659 --> 00:03:50.280 every single time someone says his name. It's 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:52.879 a constant reminder to his subjects, I am supposed 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:54.979 to be here. It's like a politician's slogan, 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.039 but it's his actual name. Exactly. And it's worth 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:00.419 noting that etymological connection, the name 00:04:00.419 --> 00:04:03.439 Sargon, appears once in the Bible. in Isaiah 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:06.639 20 .1. That reference is actually to the much 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:09.419 later Assyrian king, Sargon II, who took the 00:04:09.419 --> 00:04:11.919 name in honor of our guy, Sargon of Akkad. But 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:13.659 the root is the same. It's about established, 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.420 unquestionable authority. So he's got the propaganda 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:20.379 name. But what about his backstory? Because the 00:04:20.379 --> 00:04:22.660 sources we have paint a picture that sounds... 00:04:22.970 --> 00:04:24.850 I don't know, suspiciously familiar to anyone 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:27.370 who knows their Sunday school stories or Greek 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:29.410 mythology. This is where we get into the Sargon 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:31.230 birth legend. Okay. And we have to be careful 00:04:31.230 --> 00:04:34.069 with the timeline here. This specific text is 00:04:34.069 --> 00:04:37.329 Neo -Assyrian from the 7th century BC. So long 00:04:37.329 --> 00:04:40.629 after he lived. Very long after. But it purports 00:04:40.629 --> 00:04:42.829 to be his autobiography. It starts with Sargon 00:04:42.829 --> 00:04:45.550 saying, quote, My mother was a high priestess. 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:48.660 My father I knew not. A high priestess mother 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:51.339 and an unknown father. That's already a bit scandalous 00:04:51.339 --> 00:04:53.699 for the time. It is. The text says she bore him 00:04:53.699 --> 00:04:56.100 in secret. And because she couldn't keep him, 00:04:56.139 --> 00:04:59.019 perhaps because of her vows as a priestess, she 00:04:59.019 --> 00:05:01.399 placed him in a basket of rushes, sealed the 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.660 lid with batumen to make it water -truth, and 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:05.800 cast him into the river. Okay, stop right there. 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:09.259 Basket of rushes. Sealed with batumen. Floating 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:11.959 down the river. That is literally the story of 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.800 Moses. I mean, word for word. It is strikingly 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:17.329 similar. And scholars have pointed this out for 00:05:17.329 --> 00:05:20.329 over a century. It's a recurring motif in ancient 00:05:20.329 --> 00:05:23.209 literature, a trope that we call the infant birth 00:05:23.209 --> 00:05:26.230 exposure. It's a trope. A very common one. You 00:05:26.230 --> 00:05:28.310 see it with Moses, obviously. You see it with 00:05:28.310 --> 00:05:30.870 the Indian hero Karna and the Mahabharata. You 00:05:30.870 --> 00:05:33.490 see it with Oedipus and Greek myth. The child 00:05:33.490 --> 00:05:35.850 of special destiny is abandoned to the elements, 00:05:36.089 --> 00:05:39.310 usually water, and is rescued by someone of humble 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:42.149 status. So it's a standard hero's journey opening 00:05:42.149 --> 00:05:44.879 scene. Essentially, yes. It solves a narrative 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:48.120 problem for a self -made king. It gives him a 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:51.579 mysterious, possibly divine origin, but it also 00:05:51.579 --> 00:05:53.779 explains why he grew up among the common people. 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:57.399 So who finds him in this story? In Sargon's case, 00:05:57.500 --> 00:05:59.360 he's fished out of the river by a man named Aki. 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:01.959 The text calls him a drawer of water. Like an 00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:04.199 irrigator or someone who carries water? Probably. 00:06:04.779 --> 00:06:07.360 So Aki takes the baby in, raises him as his own 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:09.459 son, and eventually appoints him as his gardener. 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:11.740 So the future king of the universe starts out 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:14.300 pruning hedges and watering plants. Exactly. 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:16.540 Yeah. But this is part of the mystique. He isn't 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:18.519 born into the palace with a silver spoon. He 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:20.620 works the land. He's one of the people. And the 00:06:20.620 --> 00:06:22.879 legend says that while he was a gardener, the 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:26.500 goddess Ishtar granted him her love. Ishtar is 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:29.420 the goddess of love and war. Right. That's a 00:06:29.420 --> 00:06:31.779 powerful ally to have. The most powerful. Yeah. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:35.240 That divine favor. is the spark that launches 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:38.339 his career. It tells the people, I wasn't chosen 00:06:38.339 --> 00:06:41.160 by the old corrupt kings. I was chosen by the 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:43.120 goddess herself while I was working in the dirt. 00:06:43.579 --> 00:06:46.139 It's a powerful narrative. I love that. But, 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:48.420 okay, let's look at the Sumerian kingless and 00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:50.360 the Sumerian Sargon legend because that gives 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:53.199 us a slightly more political stepping stone. 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:55.500 It says he wasn't just a gardener forever. He 00:06:55.500 --> 00:06:58.500 became the cupbearer to Urzababa, the king of 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:00.939 Kish. Right. And we really need to clarify the 00:07:00.939 --> 00:07:02.740 role of a cupbearer. It sounds like a waiter. 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:05.319 It does. Can you get me a refill? But in the 00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:07.360 ancient Near East, it was a position of immense 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:10.139 trust. You were the last line of defense against 00:07:10.139 --> 00:07:13.519 poison. Oh, of course. You stood right next to 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:15.439 the king during feasts and councils. You heard 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.100 everything. You had the king's ear. It's more 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:19.819 like being the chief of staff or maybe the head 00:07:19.819 --> 00:07:21.620 of the secret service. So he's in the inner circle. 00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:24.180 He's in the room where it happens. But the relationship 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:27.620 between Sargon and his boss, Urzababa, gets... 00:07:28.719 --> 00:07:31.439 Complicated. Very complicated. The text describes 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:34.759 a kind of psychological drama. It starts when 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:38.040 Sargon has a dream. Okay. In this dream, the 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:40.639 goddess Inanna, who is the Sumerian counterpart 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.040 to the Akkadian Ishtar, is drowning King Urzababa 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:46.639 in a river of blood. Subtle. Not at all. And 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.980 Sargon, perhaps as a bit of a power move or maybe 00:07:49.980 --> 00:07:52.620 out of genuine fear, tells the king about this 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:54.899 dream. I can't imagine that went over well. No. 00:07:55.769 --> 00:07:58.410 Naturally, Urzababa is terrified. He sees this 00:07:58.410 --> 00:08:01.050 as a clear omen that his cupbearer, this guy 00:08:01.050 --> 00:08:03.350 standing next to him every day, is going to overthrow 00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:06.230 him. So what does he do? He hatches a plot. He 00:08:06.230 --> 00:08:08.269 tries to have Sargon killed by the chief smith, 00:08:08.389 --> 00:08:11.529 a man named Belistigal. But Inanna, his divine 00:08:11.529 --> 00:08:14.350 protector, is watching out for him. So the assassination 00:08:14.350 --> 00:08:18.689 fails. It fails. So Urzababa, now getting desperate, 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:21.629 tries a different tactic. This is another classic 00:08:21.629 --> 00:08:24.230 literary trope that scholars call the Uriah Letter. 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:26.560 which you see in the Bible with King David or 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:29.220 the Greek story of Bellerophon. How does that 00:08:29.220 --> 00:08:31.680 one work? The king sends Sargon on a mission. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.480 He's to deliver a clay tablet to another king, 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:37.779 a very powerful one named Lugolzadze of Uruk. 00:08:38.179 --> 00:08:40.379 But the message inscribed on the tablet says, 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:43.500 effectively, kill the bearer of this message. 00:08:43.820 --> 00:08:45.899 That is cold. Here, carry your own death warrant. 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:48.700 It's the ultimate test of loyalty and a trap. 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:50.940 The text actually breaks off there, but well, 00:08:51.019 --> 00:08:53.220 history tells us the answer. Sargon obviously 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.639 survives. He not only survives the trap, but 00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:57.440 he eventually challenges Lugolzadzhi directly. 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:00.539 And this is the pivotal moment. Lugolzadzhi wasn't 00:09:00.539 --> 00:09:03.279 just some minor player. Not at all. He was a 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.559 powerhouse. He had already conquered much of 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:07.659 Sumer and unified several city -states under 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:10.440 his rule. He was the big boss of the entire region. 00:09:10.700 --> 00:09:13.289 So this is the heavyweight title fight. Sargon 00:09:13.289 --> 00:09:16.090 versus Lugalzadzi, the upstart versus the establishment. 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:20.009 And Sargon doesn't just win. He humiliates him. 00:09:20.149 --> 00:09:23.169 The inscriptions are absolutely brutal. Sargon 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:26.370 claims he brought Lugalzadzi in a collar to the 00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:28.970 gate of Enlil. He put him in a dog collar. Essentially 00:09:28.970 --> 00:09:31.929 a neck stock. He dragged the former most powerful 00:09:31.929 --> 00:09:35.389 man in Sumer to the holy gate of the chief god 00:09:35.389 --> 00:09:39.899 Enlil in the city of Nippur. Wow. This was incredibly 00:09:39.899 --> 00:09:43.440 symbolic. Enlil was the god who granted kingship. 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:46.779 By dragging the defeated king to Enlil's gate, 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:50.179 Sargon was making a very public statement. The 00:09:50.179 --> 00:09:53.419 gods have rejected him. I am the new order. And 00:09:53.419 --> 00:09:55.240 then he goes on a demolition spree. He does. 00:09:55.299 --> 00:09:57.919 He tears down the great defensive walls of Uruk, 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:00.600 Ur, and Enimar. Why tear down the walls? Is that 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:02.779 just to show off your strength? It's strategic. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:05.500 It's more than just showing off. In a world of 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:07.480 city -states, The wall is your independence. 00:10:07.779 --> 00:10:09.740 It's what allows you to say no to your neighbor. 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:12.340 By tearing down the wall, Sargon renders these 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:14.539 cities completely defenseless. They can no longer 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:17.080 resist him. Exactly. They're now totally dependent 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:19.679 on his central authority for protection. He's 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:21.799 fundamentally changing the power dynamic. And 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:23.460 then he does something that I think is one of 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:25.659 the most cinematic moments in ancient history. 00:10:25.860 --> 00:10:29.220 He marches his army. All the way south. All the 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:31.080 way to the Persian Gulf. Which they called the 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:33.980 lower sea. Yes, the lower sea. And then the inscription 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.759 says he washed his weapons in the sea. That image 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:39.820 just stays with you. It's like, I have run out 00:10:39.820 --> 00:10:42.379 of land to conquer. I'm washing the blood off 00:10:42.379 --> 00:10:44.639 in the ocean because I own everything from the 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.360 north all the way to the water. That is exactly 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:49.919 the message. He conquered the entire territory 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:53.100 from Lagash to the coast. But he didn't stop 00:10:53.100 --> 00:10:56.240 there. This is where the concept of empire really 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:59.539 takes shape. He didn't just want Sumer, the traditional 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.519 heartland. He wanted what the texts call the 00:11:02.519 --> 00:11:05.500 Four Quarters. The Four Quarters. That sounds 00:11:05.500 --> 00:11:07.360 like he's trying to encompass the entire compass. 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:09.460 What does that actually cover in geographical 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:12.759 terms? He claimed dominion from the Upper Sea, 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:15.139 which is the Mediterranean, all the way to the 00:11:15.139 --> 00:11:18.059 Lower Sea, the Persian Gulf. He pushed north 00:11:18.059 --> 00:11:21.940 into Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant. The inscription 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:24.919 has mentioned specific places like Mori, Yermudi. 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:28.399 and Ebla. And Ebla is way up in modern -day Syria. 00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:31.120 That's a huge distance. It's a massive territory. 00:11:31.419 --> 00:11:33.960 He pushed as far as the Cedar Forest, which is 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:35.919 likely the Amanis Mountains in what's now Lebanon, 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.620 and the Silver Mountain, which might be the Taurus 00:11:38.620 --> 00:11:41.200 Mountains in Turkey. Why go that far? Was it 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:43.700 just ego wanting more land? It was economics, 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.679 pure and simple. Mesopotamia, Sumer especially, 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:50.360 is rich in mud and grain, but it has almost no 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:53.730 timber and no metal. So you can't build big temples 00:11:53.730 --> 00:11:56.870 or forge good weapons. Exactly. To build a monumental 00:11:56.870 --> 00:11:59.570 empire, you need cedar for roofs and ships, and 00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:01.970 you need silver and copper for weapons and tools 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:05.250 and trade. He wasn't just raiding. He was securing 00:12:05.250 --> 00:12:07.730 the supply chain. He was seizing the source of 00:12:07.730 --> 00:12:10.110 the materials. And he went east too, right? Into 00:12:10.110 --> 00:12:13.049 the area of modern -day Iran. He did. He campaigned 00:12:13.049 --> 00:12:16.299 against Elam and Marhashi. These were tough, 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:18.720 mountainous regions that had always been a threat 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:21.519 to the Mesopotamian plains. He even lists the 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:24.000 leaders he defeated, guys with names like Lutwishin 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.379 of Elam and Sidgau of Parashum. He styled himself 00:12:27.379 --> 00:12:30.259 king of the world and conqueror of Elam. I mean, 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:32.419 the man was fighting on multiple fronts and winning 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:35.039 everywhere. So he's conquered the world, or at 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:37.980 least the world as they knew it. But conquering 00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:40.509 is one thing, keeping it as another. How did 00:12:40.509 --> 00:12:43.389 he actually run this massive, multi -ethnic, 00:12:43.389 --> 00:12:46.350 multilingual territory? You can't just be everywhere 00:12:46.350 --> 00:12:48.789 at once. And this is where Sargon really innovates. 00:12:48.850 --> 00:12:51.370 You see, you can't run an empire with a temporary 00:12:51.370 --> 00:12:53.669 militia of farmers who need to go home for the 00:12:53.669 --> 00:12:55.970 harvest. No, the rebellion starts the minute 00:12:55.970 --> 00:12:58.070 you turn your back. Right. You need professionals. 00:12:58.570 --> 00:13:01.610 The texts give us this one fascinating, very 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:05.740 specific detail. Sargon had a court. or standing 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:09.240 army of 5 ,400 men who ate bread daily before 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:12.820 him. 5 ,400 men eating dinner with the boss every 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:15.100 single night. That's a lot of bread. It's a huge 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:17.480 logistical operation, but it implies they were 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:19.940 fully supported by the state. This is a standing 00:13:19.940 --> 00:13:23.120 army, a professionalized military force, loyal 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:25.779 to him personally, always ready to deploy. That's 00:13:25.779 --> 00:13:27.659 a massive innovation. It was a massive innovation 00:13:27.659 --> 00:13:29.899 for the time. It allowed him to project power 00:13:29.899 --> 00:13:33.500 instantly. anywhere in the empire, to crush revolts 00:13:33.500 --> 00:13:35.320 before they could even get started. And that 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:37.259 kind of stability must have been great for business. 00:13:37.659 --> 00:13:40.659 It was fantastic for business. Once the region 00:13:40.659 --> 00:13:44.039 is pacified, trade can flourish. We have records 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:47.139 of ships docking at his capital, Akkad, from 00:13:47.139 --> 00:13:50.039 very distant lands. From Dilmun, which we're 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:53.460 pretty sure is modern Bahrain. from Magan, which 00:13:53.460 --> 00:13:56.139 is likely Oman famous for its copper, and from 00:13:56.139 --> 00:13:58.700 Malooja. And Malooja is the Indus Valley civilization, 00:13:59.179 --> 00:14:02.080 right, in modern Pakistan and India. That's the 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:04.679 scholarly consensus, yes. So you have goods, 00:14:04.740 --> 00:14:06.980 raw materials, flowing from the Indus Valley 00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:09.679 all the way to Akkad in central Mesopotamia. 00:14:09.779 --> 00:14:12.720 It was an early form of globalization, all secured 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:15.340 by Sargon's military dominance. Which brings 00:14:15.340 --> 00:14:18.480 us back to that mystery city. Akkad. Akkad. We 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:20.500 know he had ship stocking there. We know he had 00:14:20.500 --> 00:14:23.759 5 ,400 soldiers eating there. But we still don't 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:25.480 know where it is. Do we have any idea if he built 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:27.620 it from scratch? Well, that's a subject to debate 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:30.080 among scholars. Some later texts, like the Widener 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.480 Chronicle, say he built Babylon in front of Akkad 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:34.899 or made a counterpart of Babylon next to a god. 00:14:35.019 --> 00:14:36.720 This kind of suggests he was the founder. But 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:39.700 there was a discovery, an inscription dated to 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:42.720 the first year of a king named Mishakushana, 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.929 who almost certainly ruled before Sargon. And 00:14:45.929 --> 00:14:49.009 this inscription mentions Akkad. So the city, 00:14:49.009 --> 00:14:50.909 or at least the place, might have existed before 00:14:50.909 --> 00:14:54.250 Sargon and he just moved in and renovated. It's 00:14:54.250 --> 00:14:56.450 very possible. He could have seized a minor town 00:14:56.450 --> 00:14:58.750 that was strategically located and then expanded 00:14:58.750 --> 00:15:01.549 it into his grand imperial capital. But because 00:15:01.549 --> 00:15:04.570 we haven't found the site, we can't see the layers 00:15:04.570 --> 00:15:07.669 of occupation to know for sure. It remains one 00:15:07.669 --> 00:15:10.669 of archaeology's great holy grails. Man, imagine 00:15:10.669 --> 00:15:12.429 finding that. It would be the discovery of the 00:15:12.429 --> 00:15:14.820 century. Now let's talk about the dynasty. He 00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:17.100 didn't just rule alone. He set up a family business. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:20.139 He absolutely did. We know his wife's name, Queen 00:15:20.139 --> 00:15:24.299 Teshiltim. But the real star of the family, arguably, 00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:27.139 is his daughter. And Hedwana. And Hedwana, yes. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:28.799 You cannot tell the story of Sargon without her. 00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:30.820 He appointed her as the high priestess of the 00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:33.220 moon god, Nana, in the city of Ur. And this wasn't 00:15:33.220 --> 00:15:35.279 just a ceremonial role, was it? This was a power 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.980 move. A brilliant political move. Ur was a very 00:15:38.980 --> 00:15:42.000 old, very powerful, and very proud conquered 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.789 Sumerian city. Placing his Akkadian daughter 00:15:44.789 --> 00:15:47.129 as the highest religious authority, there was 00:15:47.129 --> 00:15:49.110 a way to fuse the Sumerian religious tradition 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:52.909 with his new Akkadian political power. But Enheduanna 00:15:52.909 --> 00:15:55.850 is famous for another, even more incredible reason. 00:15:56.269 --> 00:15:59.500 She is the first named author in history. The 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:01.799 first one we know by name, male or female, she's 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:03.759 the first person to sign her work. Correct. We 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:05.980 have her name. She composed these beautiful, 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:09.240 complex ritual hymns, like the Exaltation of 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:11.580 Inanna, that were so powerful they were copied 00:16:11.580 --> 00:16:14.120 and used in temples for centuries after her death. 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:17.080 She's a major literary figure. She helped unify 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.340 the theology of the empire by, for instance, 00:16:19.419 --> 00:16:21.279 blending the Sumerian goddess Inanna with the 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:24.000 Akkadian goddess Ishtar into one coherent figure. 00:16:24.100 --> 00:16:26.440 That's amazing. So the father conquers the bodies, 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:28.759 the daughter conquers the minds and souls. a 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:30.879 very effective one -two punch for building an 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:34.299 empire. And the dynasty continued. Sargon was 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:36.580 succeeded by his son Rimush, then his other son 00:16:36.580 --> 00:16:39.399 Manistushu, and then came his grandson, Naram 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:41.980 -Sin, who ruled the empire at its absolute height 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:44.580 of power and glory. I want to touch on one technical 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:46.220 thing that I found really interesting in the 00:16:46.220 --> 00:16:50.019 notes. The way they tracked time back then. They 00:16:50.019 --> 00:16:54.379 didn't use numbers like the year 2330 BC. No, 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:57.580 they used year names. each year was named after 00:16:57.580 --> 00:16:59.539 the most significant event that happened. So 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:02.639 you'd have the year in which Sargon went to Samurim. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.119 Or the year in which Mari was destroyed. It's 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:06.759 like checking the news headlines to figure out 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:08.980 what year it is. Oh, is it the year we destroyed 00:17:08.980 --> 00:17:11.200 Elam? No, no, that was last year. This is the 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:15.119 year we fixed the big canal. Precisely. And interestingly... 00:17:15.450 --> 00:17:18.690 For Sargon's incredibly long reign, we only have 00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:21.250 four specific year names that have been preserved. 00:17:21.809 --> 00:17:24.430 And they mostly relate to his military campaigns 00:17:24.430 --> 00:17:27.150 against Elamare and Samarim. So we've got the 00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:29.869 rise, the conquest, the administration, but no 00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:32.849 empire lasts forever. And Sargon's later years, 00:17:33.029 --> 00:17:35.369 well, they weren't exactly a peaceful retirement, 00:17:35.529 --> 00:17:37.730 were they? Not at all. The Chronicle of Early 00:17:37.730 --> 00:17:40.029 Kings, which is a later Babylonian text, paints 00:17:40.029 --> 00:17:42.309 a really chaotic picture of his twilight years. 00:17:42.670 --> 00:17:45.619 It states that in his old age, All the lands 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:48.160 revolted against him, and they besieged him in 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:51.119 Akkad. Wow. They brought the fight right to his 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:53.099 doorstep. After all that, they tried to trap 00:17:53.099 --> 00:17:55.539 him in his own capital. They did. But Sargon 00:17:55.539 --> 00:17:58.740 was still Sargon. The text says he went onward 00:17:58.740 --> 00:18:01.720 to battle, broke the siege, and completely crushed 00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:03.960 the rebellion. He destroyed their widespread 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:06.380 host. He wasn't going to go down quietly. But 00:18:06.380 --> 00:18:08.519 there's a darker turn in the text, right? A sense 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:10.599 that maybe he crossed a line, that he got too 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:12.920 arrogant. This brings us to the classic theme 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:16.119 of hubris. Later chronicles, written by Babylonians, 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:19.160 attribute his troubles and the eventual fall 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:21.900 of his dynasty to a specific sin he committed. 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:24.740 What did he do? The text says Sargon dug up the 00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:27.640 soil of the pit of Babylon to build his own city. 00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:31.079 He stole dirt from Babylon. I don't get it. Why 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:33.519 is that such a big deal? Well, the implication 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:35.980 is that he removed soil from the trenches or 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:38.660 the sacred foundations of Babylon to create a 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:42.240 counterpart. A new Babylon in Akkad. He was trying 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:45.019 to physically and maybe magically appropriate 00:18:45.019 --> 00:18:48.140 the sacred power of Babylon, an ancient and holy 00:18:48.140 --> 00:18:51.220 city, for his own upstart capital. And the god 00:18:51.220 --> 00:18:53.680 of Babylon, Marduk, was not happy about this. 00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:57.119 Not happy at all. The Chronicle says that because 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:00.119 of this evil which he had committed, the great 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:03.140 god Marduk became angry. And you don't want to 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:06.049 make Marduk angry. Definitely not. The Chronicle 00:19:06.049 --> 00:19:08.329 says Marduk destroyed Sargon's people with a 00:19:08.329 --> 00:19:10.990 great famine. It says, quote, From the rising 00:19:10.990 --> 00:19:13.710 of the sun unto the setting of the sun, they 00:19:13.710 --> 00:19:17.309 opposed him and gave him no rest. It suggests 00:19:17.309 --> 00:19:19.750 a kind of spiritual rot at the core of the empire 00:19:19.750 --> 00:19:22.309 because the king disrespected the traditional 00:19:22.309 --> 00:19:24.809 gods in their holy places. It's so interesting 00:19:24.809 --> 00:19:27.230 how history gets written by the victors, or at 00:19:27.230 --> 00:19:29.309 least by the survivors. Why is there a famine? 00:19:29.470 --> 00:19:31.089 Well, remember when the king stole that dirt 00:19:31.089 --> 00:19:33.410 10 years ago? That's why. That's how the ancient 00:19:33.410 --> 00:19:36.329 mind made sense of causality. It was a theological 00:19:36.329 --> 00:19:39.190 explanation for political and environmental disaster. 00:19:39.890 --> 00:19:42.470 If the king loses the mandate of heaven, nature 00:19:42.470 --> 00:19:45.299 itself rebels against him. Despite the famine 00:19:45.299 --> 00:19:47.619 and the revolts, the memory of Sargon didn't 00:19:47.619 --> 00:19:49.960 fade away. If anything, it got stronger over 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:53.519 time. He became the model king. For 2 ,000 years, 00:19:53.740 --> 00:19:56.579 Assyrian and Babylonian kings saw him as the 00:19:56.579 --> 00:19:59.619 ultimate ancestor. If you were a king in Mesopotamia, 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:02.039 you wanted to be the next Sargon. We even have 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:04.640 a Neo -Assyrian text where Sargon speaks in the 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:07.319 first person as if from the grave, challenging 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:10.119 future kings. What does he say? He says, let 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:13.039 him rule. The black -headed people. Let him ascend 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:16.259 the upper mountains. It's a challenge. I did 00:20:16.259 --> 00:20:19.039 all this, can you? And one king, Nabonidus, took 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:20.839 that really literally. He was actually doing 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:23.380 archaeology, wasn't he? He was. In the 6th century 00:20:23.380 --> 00:20:26.220 BC, that's nearly 2 ,000 years after Sargon lived, 00:20:26.539 --> 00:20:29.359 the Neo -Babylonian king Nabonidus conducted 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:32.480 excavations specifically to find Sargon's palaces. 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.180 He wanted to physically connect himself to that 00:20:35.180 --> 00:20:37.759 ancient legacy. It's wild to think of an ancient 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:40.099 king acting as an archaeologist for an even more 00:20:40.099 --> 00:20:42.559 ancient king. And Sargon's influence might even 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:45.160 stretch into the Bible. There are scholarly suggestions, 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:47.519 yeah, that the biblical figure of Nimrod might 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:50.119 be inspired by Sargon or perhaps his grandson 00:20:50.119 --> 00:20:52.559 Naram -Sin. Nimrod, the mighty hunter before 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:56.000 the Lord. Exactly. He's described as a unifier 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:59.400 of Babylonia, a great builder of cities. The 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:02.740 geographic scope and the legendary status certainly 00:21:02.740 --> 00:21:05.599 fit the Sargon archetype. And the legend hasn't 00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:08.200 stopped. We see Sargon popping up in pop culture 00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:11.460 in some really random places. It's a very eclectic 00:21:11.460 --> 00:21:14.059 list. For instance, you have the movie The Scorpion 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:16.740 King, Rise of a Warrior, where Sargon is the 00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:19.019 main villain, and he's played by Randy Couture. 00:21:19.180 --> 00:21:22.000 The UFC fighter. The very same. He's portrayed 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:24.940 as a villain who wields black magic, historically 00:21:24.940 --> 00:21:27.079 accurate, not in the slightest, but it shows 00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:29.079 the name still carries this immense weight of 00:21:29.079 --> 00:21:32.380 power and conquest. And Star Trek. I couldn't 00:21:32.380 --> 00:21:34.740 believe this one. Star Trek, the original series. 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:37.160 There's an episode called Return to Tomorrow 00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:40.339 featuring a powerful telepathic alien entity 00:21:40.339 --> 00:21:43.559 named Sargon who once ruled a mighty empire millions 00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:46.480 of years ago. The writers clearly just grabbed 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:48.880 the name to signify ancient ultimate power. I 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:51.380 also saw that the band They Might Be Giants has 00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:54.339 a song called The Mesopotamians. They do. And 00:21:54.339 --> 00:21:57.039 they mention Sargon along with Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal, 00:21:57.220 --> 00:21:59.980 and Gilgamesh. It's a very catchy way to learn 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:02.420 your ancient history, actually. And for the gamers 00:22:02.420 --> 00:22:05.039 out there, he's in Age of Empires II. Yes, in 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.640 the Return of Rome expansion pack. You can play 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:10.839 a whole campaign as Sargon of Akkad. It's actually 00:22:10.839 --> 00:22:13.700 a pretty decent way to visualize the geography. 00:22:14.539 --> 00:22:17.279 of his conquests. And just to be thorough with 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:19.599 our sources, because it comes up, the name Sargon 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:22.180 of Akkad also appears in modern Internet culture. 00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:25.160 It was adopted as a pseudonym by Carl Benjamin, 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:28.119 a British political commentator and YouTuber. 00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:30.000 Right. And it's just another example that shows 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.319 that the name itself, Sargon, has become a brand 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:35.420 of its own, almost separate from the historical 00:22:35.420 --> 00:22:37.720 man. It's become a symbol. It is detached from 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:39.420 the history and become a symbol of authority, 00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:42.480 antiquity and sometimes just raw world changing 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.920 power. So let's bring it all home. What does 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:47.039 this all mean? We started with a gardener and 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:49.220 a basket, and we ended with the king of the universe. 00:22:49.660 --> 00:22:52.200 Sargon represents the transition from the local 00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:54.920 to the imperial. He set the template. Before 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:57.640 him, you fought for your city. After him, kings 00:22:57.640 --> 00:23:00.160 fought for the world. He established the bureaucracy, 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:03.660 the standing army, the dynastic succession, all 00:23:03.660 --> 00:23:05.799 the tools that would define the ancient Near 00:23:05.799 --> 00:23:08.920 East for the next 15 centuries. He proved that 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.839 a central government could control a vast, multi 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:14.500 -ethnic territory. He created the rules of a 00:23:14.500 --> 00:23:16.660 game that empires have been playing ever since. 00:23:16.859 --> 00:23:18.619 But I have to say, I can't stop thinking about 00:23:18.619 --> 00:23:22.039 that Soil of Babylon story. It's the most provocative 00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:24.339 detail in the whole legend, isn't it? Yeah. Why 00:23:24.339 --> 00:23:27.700 did he do it? The Chronicle says he dug up the 00:23:27.700 --> 00:23:30.039 soil of the pit of Babylon to make a counterpart 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:33.140 in a cod. Was it an attempt to, I don't know, 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.519 magically transfer the power of an older holy 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:37.779 site to his new capital? Was he trying to clone 00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:40.960 the holiness of Babylon? Or was it, as the Babylonian 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:43.019 priests later claimed, just an act of supreme 00:23:43.019 --> 00:23:45.440 arrogance? We'll never know for sure. It just 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.019 suggests that even the king of the universe couldn't 00:23:48.019 --> 00:23:50.779 escape the judgment of history or the gods. You 00:23:50.779 --> 00:23:53.160 can conquer the entire world. You can wash your 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:55.180 weapons in the sea. But if you mess with the 00:23:55.180 --> 00:23:58.220 wrong Bert, history might just turn against you. 00:23:58.380 --> 00:24:02.259 A lesson for emperors of all ages. That's it 00:24:02.259 --> 00:24:04.519 for this deep dive into the world's first emperor. 00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:06.599 Thanks for listening and we'll catch you on the 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:06.960 next one.