Map of the Akkadian Empire (brown) and the directions in which military campaigns were conducted (yellow arrows)
Summerian King Lugalzagasi of Umma succeeded in establishing
his influence over all Sumer, although there is no evidence that he introduced
any significant changes. Twenty-four years later, the empire of Lugalzagasi was
destroyed by the armies of a Semitic prince from the northern city of Akkad,
Sargon the Great (2325-? b. c. e.) All Sumer was now united under the control
of the Akkadian king. Sargon bequeathed to the world the prototype of the
military dictatorship. By force of arms Sargon conquered all the Sumerian
city-states and the entire Tigris-Euphrates valley, bringing into being an
empire that stretched from the Taurus Mountains to the Persian Gulf and,
perhaps, even to the Mediterranean. In his fifty-year reign Sargon fought no
fewer than thirty-four wars. One account suggests that his army numbered 5,400
men, soldiers called gurush in Akkadian. If that account is correct, Sargon’s
army would have been the largest standing army of the period.
Sargon’s whole reign was spent in defending his empire from
the mountain people who raided Mesopotamia and from rebellions: he had to
mollify people who spoke different languages and lived in different cultures.
At first, he tried not to offend the Sumerians-when he needed land, he
purchased it-but in the end, in the face of continued rebellion, he took
stronger action: he levelled city walls and eliminated centers of resistance,
he garrisoned Sumer with Akkadian governors and Akkadian troops, and when still
he had not pacified Sumer, he confiscated tracts of land, expelled the
Sumerians, and resettled the land with Akkadians. Sargon had tried to treat the
Sumerians fairly, but his concept of fairness was radically different from
theirs-he believed that men appointed their rulers and men owned the land;
Sumerians believed that the gods appointed rulers and the gods owned the land
and, therefore, as they saw it, Sargon not only had no right to dismiss
Sumerian rulers or to dispose of their land, but he was committing sacrilege
when he did it.
Sargon discovered another limit to his conquests: although
he led his armies to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, when he tried to
march them north into Anatolia, they mutinied and he was forced to turn back.
Sargon, like every ruler, depended upon the will of his army, and he accepted
the limits of what it would allow him to do in order to preserve its loyalty.
Because of the army’s loyalty Sargon was able to pass his empire on peacefully
to his son Rimush. Rimush, however, had to suppress a Sumerian revolt and nine
years after his accession he was assassinated. When his brother, the second son
of Sargon, succeeded him, he, too, had to suppress a Sumerian revolt, and he,
too, was assassinated. He was succeeded by his son, Naram-Sin.
Naram-Sin had to suppress a revolt by the Sumerians, the
revolt spread to the whole empire, and the perilous situation encouraged the
Gutians to invade Mesopotamia. Naram-Sin repulsed the Gutians, defeated the
rebels, took the title “king of the four-quarters” (that is, king of
the whole world), and announced to his subjects that he was a god. If the
Mesopotamians, and particularly the Sumerians, had accepted his claim (a not
impossible claim given that they believed that gods can grow old and die), then
(in logic) they would have been compelled to accept his right to confiscate
land and depose rulers. He failed, however, to convince them and never
reconciled the Sumerians to Akkadian rule.
Towards the end of Naram-Sin’s thirty-seven-year reign he again
had to stop a Gutian invasion, but this time he was unable to expel them from
his empire. He died, and his son inherited the continuing war against the
Gutians and, to compound his troubles, a new Sumerian revolt. The Sumerians
regained their freedom, the empire crumbled, and the Akkadian was driven back
to the confines of his home city, Agade. The Sumerians rejoiced in their
freedom, but not for long, because they quarreled with each other, they
overlooked the threat of the Gutians, and the Gutians invaded, conquered
Sumeria, and held it for a hundred years. The empire of Sargon and his heirs
was gone, but it left a legacy-all subsequent rulers in Mesopotamia dreamed of
re-creating Sargon’s empire.
In the midst of the twenty-second century a Sumerian hero,
the king of Uruk, drove the Gutians out of Mesopotamia and convinced the
Sumerians-with the help of his victory-to put aside their differences and unite
behind him. When he died in an accidental drowning, his successor, Ur-nammu,
took control of Sumer in one campaign, subjugated Akkad, took the title
“king of Sumer and Akkad” and characterized himself as “the son
of a god.” With the powers this divine status gave him (the right to
control the land and appoint the ensi’s), Ur-nammu dedicated himself to the
restoration of a ravaged and depressed land: he encouraged the reconstruction
of temples, city walls, roads, harbors, and, most important of all, the
irrigation system. Sumer became prosperous once more.
That Sargon’s army would have been composed of professionals
seems obvious in light of the almost constant state of war that characterized
his reign. As in Sumer, military units appear to have been organized on the
sexagesimal system. Sargon’s army comprised nine battalions of 600 men, each
commanded by a gir.nita, or “colonel.” Other ranks of officer
included the pa. pa/sha khattim, literally, “he of two staff s of
office,” a title which indicated that this officer commanded two or more
units of sixty. Below this rank were the nu.banda and ugala, ranks unchanged
since Sumerian times. Even if they had begun as conscripts, within a short time
Sargon’s soldiers would have become battle-experienced veterans. Equipping an
army of this size required a high degree of military organization to run the
weapons and logistics functions, to say nothing of the routine administration
that was characteristic of a literate people who kept prodigious records. We
know nothing definitive about these arrangements.
An Akkadian innovation introduced by Sargon was the niskum,
a class of soldiers probably equivalent to the old aga-ush lugai, or
“royal soldiers.” The niskum held plots of land by favor of the king
and received allotments of fish and salt every three months. The idea was to
create a corps of loyal military professionals along the later model of
Republican Rome. Thutmose I of Egypt, too, introduced a similar system as a way
of producing a caste of families who held their land as long as they continued
to provide a son for the officer corps. The Akkadian system worked to provide
significant numbers of loyal, trained soldiers who could be used in war or to
suppress local revolts. Along with the professionals, militia, and these royal
soldiers, the army of Sargon contained light troops or skirmishers called nim
soldiers. Nim literally means “flies,” a name which suggests the
employment of these troops in spread formation accompanied by rapid movement.
During the Sargon period the Sumerians/Akkadians contributed
yet another major innovation in weaponry: the composite bow. The introduction
of this lethal and revolutionary weapon may have occurred during the reign of
Naram Sin (2254-2218 b. c. e.), Sargon’s grandson. Like his grandfather, Naram
Sin fought continuous wars of conquest against foreign enemies. His victory
over Lullubi is commemorated in a rock sculpture that shows Naram Sin armed
with a composite bow. This sculpture marks the first appearance of the
composite bow in history and strongly suggests that it was of Sumerian/Akkadian
origin. The fact that the bow appears in the hand of the warrior king himself
suggests that it was a major weapon of the time, even though there is no
surviving evidence that the Sumerian army had previously used even the simple
bow.
The composite bow was a major military innovation. While the
simple bow could kill at ranges from 50 to 100 yards, it would not penetrate even
simple leather armor at these ranges. The composite bow, with a pull of at
least twice that of the simple bow, could easily penetrate leather armor and,
perhaps, even the early prototypes of bronze armor that were emerging at this
time. In the hands of even untrained peasant militia the composite bow could
bring the enemy under a hail of arrows from twice the distance of the simple
bow. So important was this weapon that it became a basic implement of war of
all armies of the Near East for the next 1,500 years.
The use of battle cars seems to have declined considerably
during the Akkadian period. Any number of reasons suggest themselves. Such
vehicles were very expensive. In Sumer a powerful king could commandeer the
cars of his vassals, which they maintained at their expense. But with the
centralization of political authority under Sargon these vassals disappeared,
making the cost of these cars a royal expense. The professionalization of the
army resulted in an infantry-heavy force which under most circumstances would
have required few battle cars beyond those needed to transport the king and his
generals. Finally, the Akkadian kings fought wars far from home in the
mountains of Elam and against the Guti farther north. These were lightly armed,
highly mobile enemies fighting in mountains and heavily wooded glens. The
chariot had come into being to fight wars between rival city-states on
relatively even terrain. Their use in rough terrain at considerable distances
from home probably revealed the battle car’s obvious deficiencies under these
conditions, leading to a decline in its military usefulness. They seem to have
remained in use by couriers and messengers at least within the imperial
borders, where they traveled regular routes known as chariot roads.
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin.
The the most famous Akkadian martial monument, 24 this stele
shows the king and his army ascending into the Zagros Mountains and defeating
the Lullubu highlanders. This scene is the first in the history of Mesopotamian
martial art to attempt to depict the natural terrain of the battlefield in a
single scene rather than in stylized panels. The terrain shows a number of
ridges covered with trees and a high mountain peak in the background. The
inscription reads in part, “Satuni, the king of the highlanders of Lullubum
assembled together . . . [for] battle.. . . [Naram-Sin defeated them and]
heaped up a burial mound over them . . . [and] dedicated [this object, the
stele] to the god [who granted victory]” (R2:144). The Lullubu soldiers, with
their distinctive long braided ponytails, are shown in an utter rout. Several
lie dead; one has an arrow or javelin protruding from his neck. Another falls
from the mountain. Two more run away, one with a broken pike. The Lullubi king
Satuni stands before Naram-Sin, begging for his life. The Akkadian army, on the
other hand, marches boldly forward in good order. All six of the Akkadian
soldiers wear kilts and helmets, broadly similar to those shown in the earlier
Sumerian Standard of Ur and Stele of the Vultures. They all also have
narrow-bladed axes for melees. Two carry war banners, two hold 2.5-meter pikes
at the butt, resting the shaft on the shoulder like a rifle on the
parade-ground. The fifth Akkadian has a bow, while the sixth seems to have an
axe. The heroic Naram-Sin leads his army into battle on the crest of the
mountain, standing twice as tall as anyone else, and stepping on the bodies of
fallen enemies. He has a similar kilt, but has a thick beard and long hair, and
wears a horned crown symbolic of his divinity. In his hand he carries an axe, a
bow, and an arrow. His bow is often said to be the earliest representation of a
composite bow.
