What Did Sargon and Hammurabi Have in Common?
Sargon and Hammurabi both commanded great empires as rulers, with Hammurabi known for his expansion of his empire to cover all of southern Mesopotamia and Sargon known for creating the “first known empire,” reports History.com. Not much is known about Sargon because his reign occurred between 2340 B.C. and 2305 B.C., and not many written records exist from this period.
Writers left behind “The Legend of Sargon of Akkade.” In this document, the history of Sargon is laid out in brief statements such as “My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the bank of the Purattu.” However, much more is known about Hammurabi.
Hammurabi was a member of the Babylonian dynasty and created what was known as “Hammurabi’s Code.” This code was 282 laws and rules for the people of Hammurabi’s empire and involved intense punishments for those who did not obey. Punishments included removing breasts, ears, tongues or other body parts. However, the code did promise that all citizens would be thought of as innocent until they had been proven to be guilty. This is a concept that influenced Western civilization and made its way into democratic judicial systems around the world. It is not known whether Sargon had strict punishments for his people or how he ruled. However, Sargon’s empire eventually crumbled due to drought, while Hammurabi’s empire crumbled quickly after Hammurabi’s death.
