Sargon of Akkad is a hero unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome, who also has a dedicated campaign.
Campaign[]
Sargon of Akkad is a campaign in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome for Age of Empires.
| “ | An unlikely man rises to power in the city-states of Mesopotamia: Sargon is a simple cupbearer to the king, but everything changes when the war goddess Ishtar appears in his dreams. Under her guidance, Sargon leads the quarreling Sumerians into a new age, but the appealing nature of power forces him to choose between his divine destiny and his personal ambition. | ” |
The player plays as the Sumerians and the player's color is blue. The campaign consists of 5 scenarios:
The campaign is narrated by a purported contemporary of Sargon named Ushar. There is no record of such an individual in the surviving historical records from Sargon's reign.
Changelog[]
Return of Rome[]
- The campaign difficulty was displayed as Medium on release. It was changed to Easy in hotfix 85208.
Unit[]
| “ | A new era dawns! Conquer the monuments of the past and carve my name on them - the name of your god, Sargon! | ” |
| —Dialogue in Subartu | ||
Sargon of Akkad is a cavalry hero. He appears in the scenarios Divine Will and The Prophecy of his campaign. He also exists as a foot unit named Sargon.
History[]
Sargon (Akkadian: 𒊬𒊒𒄀 Šarrugi) was the King of Akkad and Sumer, and ruled from 2334 BC to 2279 BC. Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC. He is sometimes identified as the first person in recorded history to rule over an empire, although there are possibly earlier Sumerian claimants.
Upon his rise to power after defeating Lugal-zage-si (also spelled as Lugal Zaggisi), he appointed his daughter Enheduanna as the High Priestess of the moon God Nanna, to cement the ties between the Akkadian and Sumerian religions.
He built up the infrastructure of his realm, constructing roads and irrigation channels. He maintained a full-time professional army, employing footmen who fought as a shield-wall (Phalanx) as depicted in earlier Sumerian stelae, as well as War Chariots.
The Akkadian Empire established by him ruled Mesopotamia for a century, before falling to the Gutians.
Trivia[]
- The campaign icon is most likely Uridimmu, a monster with the head of a man and the body of a lion or dog, and one of several created by the primordial goddess Tiamat to destroy the younger gods. His figure was later portrayed as a trophy on doorways to act as a guardian against evil, opposite the lion-headed monster with a man's body, Ugallu.
- While Sargon is represented by the Sumerian civilization, the Akkadians were more closely related to the Assyrians and the Babylonians instead. Indeed, both Assyrian and Babylonian languages are considered two dialects of a single language origin, which scholars call Akkadian.[1]
- Nevertheless, it is somewhat fitting to portray the campaign through the Sumerians, as that is where Sargon first gained power and ruled over before conquering lands beyond the traditional boundaries of Sumer, and the Akkadian Empire far predates the time when the Assyrian and Babylonian identities would rise into prominence.
- Sargon rides a chariot pulled by what appear to be Kunga, which were the world's first human-bred hybrid animals, bred by the ancient Sumerians.[2]
- In the later scenarios of the campaign, Sargon is depicted wearing a metal mask, which was originally called the Mask of Sargon. It is now thought to represent Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin, rather than Sargon himself.
Gallery[]
