Centred on present-day Iraq, the Akkadian Empire is best known for its fighter-warrior ethos, as represented by its most famous king, Sargon the Great. In many ways it was a Sparta of the East, established more than a millennium before that Greek city, with an empire that extended across the entire Fertile Crescent thanks to its formidable military machine.
Akkadia, however, developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis with the Sumerians, whose territory Akkadians cohabited, resulting in a golden age of artistic, scientific and religious endeavour. In many ways, the story of the spread of Akkadia has parallels with the later rise of Rome, whose strong attachment to Hellenic art shaped Roman identity, and also with the rise of Islam and the cultural renaissance of the 10th to 13th centuries.