Because of this, much literature appeared concerning the Akkadian kings, especially Sargon and Naram-Sin.. From this humble be-ginning Sargon establishes himself as the king of the first
Trang 18 Alcibiades
two millennia strove Because of this, much literature
appeared concerning the Akkadian kings, especially
Sargon and Naram-Sin
In the Sargon Legend, which draws upon his
il-legitimate birth, Sargon is placed in a reed basket in
the Euphrates before he is drawn out by a man named
Aqqi and raised as a gardener From this humble
be-ginning Sargon establishes himself as the king of the
first Mesopotamian empire
The King of Battle is another tale of how Sargon
traveled to Purushkhanda in central Turkey in order
to save the merchants there from oppression After
defeating the king of the city, Nur-Daggal, the local
ruler is allowed to continue to govern as long as he
acknowledges Sargon as king Naram-Sin, however,
is often portrayed as incompetent and disrespectful
of the gods In The Curse of Akkad, Naram-Sin
be-comes frustrated because the gods will not allow him
to rebuild a temple to the god Enlil, so he destroys
it instead Enlil then sends the Gutians to destroy the
Akkadian Empire
As we know, however, the Akkadian Empire
contin-ued to have 25 prosperous years under Shar-kali-sharri
after the death of Naram-Sin, and the Gutians were
not the only reason for the downfall of the Akkadian
Empire In fact, there is no evidence for the Gutians
causing problems for the Akkadians until late in the
reign of Shar-kali-sharri Although this story had an
important didactic purpose, it shows that caution must
be used in reconstructing the history of the Akkadian
Empire from myths and legends
In the Cuthean Legend, Naram-Sin goes out to
fight a group that has invaded the Akkadian Empire
Naram-Sin seeks an oracle about the outcome of the
battle, but since it is negative, he ignores it and mocks
the whole process of divination As in The Curse of
Akkad, Naram-Sin’s disrespect of the gods gets him in
trouble as he is defeated three times by the invaders
He finally seeks another oracle and receives a positive
answer Naram-Sin has learned his lesson: “Without
divination, I will not execute punishment.” Despite
these tales, there are others that paint Naram-Sin in a
more positive light as an effective king with superior
military capabilities
Along with a centralized government comes
stan-dardization This included the gradual replacement of
Sumerian, a non-Semitic language, with Akkadian, an
East Semitic language, in administrative documents
Dating by year names, that is naming each year
af-ter a particular event such as “the year Sargon
de-stroyed Mari,” became the system used in Babylonia
until 1500 b.c.e when it was replaced with dating by regnal years There was also a standardized system of weights and measures Taxes were collected from all regions of the empire in order to pay for this central-ized administration
The Akkadian ruler appointed governors in the ter-ritories the empire controlled, but many times the local ruler was just reaffirmed in his capacity The governor would have to pledge allegiance to the Akkadian em-peror and pay tribute, but at times, when the empire was weak, the local rulers could revolt and assert their own sovereignty
This meant that the Akkadian rulers were con-stantly putting down rebellions But perhaps the most important precedent started by the Akkadian Empire was the installation of Sargon’s daughter Enheduanna
as the high priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur She composed two hymns dedicated to the goddess Inanna, making her the oldest known author in Mesopotamia This provided much needed legitimacy for the kingdom
in southern Babylonia and continued to be practiced by Mesopotamian kings until the sixth century b.c.e See also Babylon, early period; Babylon, later pe-riods; Elam; Moses; Sumer
Further reading: Franke, Sabina “Kings of Akkad: Sargon
and Naram-Sin.” In Sasson, Jack, ed Civilizations of the Ancient Near East New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1995; Gadd, C J “The Dynasty of Agade and the Gutian Invasion.” In I E S Edwards, C J Gadd, and N G L
Hammond, eds The Cambridge Ancient History, 3rd ed.,
Vol 1, Part 2, pp 417–463 Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-sity Press, 1971
James Roames
Alcibiades
(450–404 b.c.e.) Greek statesman and general
Alcibiades was an Athenian who was influential in the creation of turmoil in his home city that went a long way to explaining the defeat by Sparta in the Pelo-ponnesian War (431–404 b.c.e.) Alcibiades was a controversial and divisive figure, and his legacy in part continues to be colored by his character flaws even mil-lennia after his death Thucydides, Plato, and Plutarch recount the adventures of Alcibiades in their histories Alcibiades was born into a powerful family, and his father commanded the Athenian army at the battle in which he was killed Alcibiades was then only about seven years