caused an image of himself to be carved on the shores of the
Mediterranean, and demanded tribute from Cyprus, Uru-Malik or Urimelech
being appointed governor of Syria, as we learn from a cadastral survey
of the district of Lagas. A revolt of the Sumerian states, however,
called him home, and for a time fortune seemed against him. He was
besieged in Akkad, but a successful sally drove back the rebels, and
they were soon utterly crushed. Then Sargon marched into Suri or
Mesopotamia, subduing that country as well as the future Assyria. It was
the last, however, of his exploits. His son Naram-Sin succeeded him
shortly afterwards (B.C. 3750), and continued the conquests of his
father, Canaan was already a Babylonian province, and Naram-Sin now
carried his arms against Magan, or the Sinaitic Peninsula, where he
secured the precious mines of copper and turquoise. Building stone from
Magan had already been imported to Babylonia by Ur-Nina, a king of
Lagas, and grandfather of E-ana-gin, but it must have been brought in
the ships of Eridu.

Naram-Sin's son was Bingani-sar-ali. A queen, Ellat-Gula, seems to have
sat on the throne not many years later, and with her the dynasty may
have come to an end. At any rate, the empire of Akkad is heard of no
more. But it left behind it a profound and abiding impression on western
Asia. Henceforward the culture and art of the west was
Babylonian,--Semitic Babylonian, however, and no longer Sumerian
Babylonian as in the days of Lugal-zaggi-si. Sargon was a patron of
literature as well as a warrior. Standard works on astronomy and
astrology and the science of omens were compiled for the great library
he established at Akkad, where numerous scribes were kept constantly at
work. Sumerian books were brought from the cities of the south and
translated into Semitic; commentaries were written on the older
literature of the country, and dictionaries and grammars compiled. It
was now that that mixed language arose, or at least was admitted into
the literary dialect, which made Babylonian so much resemble modern
English. The lexicon was filled with Sumerian words which had put on a
Semitic form, and Semitic lips expressed themselves in Sumerian idioms.

Art, too, reached a high perfection. The seal-cylinders of the reign of
Sargon of Akkad represent the highest efforts of the gem-cutter's skill
in ancient Babylonia, and a bas-relief of Naram-Sin, found at Diarbekr
in northern Mesopotamia, while presen