Sargon of Akkad, who ruled roughly from 2334 to 2279 BC, is often credited as the first person to forge a multi-ethnic empire. This episode separates legend from history, from the reed-basket birth story that predates Moses by a millennium to his rise as cupbearer to King Ur-Zababa of Kish and the secret death warrant he survived.

We examine how his name, meaning the legitimate king, masked a likely usurpation, and how composite bows, a standing army of 5,400 men and a centralized bureaucracy let him conquer 34 cities from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. We also look at the revolts of his final years and the dynasty that followed him.

• How Sargon used divine-mandate storytelling as political propaganda
• His defeat of Lugal-zagesi of Uruk and the symbolic washing of weapons in the sea
• Why feeding a standing professional army required an agricultural and administrative revolution
• How his daughter Enheduanna, often called the first named author, blended Sumerian and Akkadian religion
• Why later Mesopotamian kings measured themselves against Sargon for two millennia