page_title: King of Sumer and Akkad
section_title: Babylonian and Assyrian kings (1728–539 BC)
hierarchical_section_title: King of Sumer and Akkad / History / Babylonian and Assyrian kings (1728–539 BC)
context_page_description: King of Sumer and Akkad was a royal title in Ancient Mesopotamia combining the titles of "King of Akkad", the ruling title held by the monarchs of the Akkadian Empire with the title of "King of Sumer". The title simultaneously laid a claim on the legacy and glory of the ancient empire that had been founded by Sargon of Akkad and expressed a claim to rule the entirety of lower Mesopotamia. Despite both of the titles "King of Sumer" and "King of Akkad" having been used by the Akkadian kings, the title was not introduced in its combined form until the reign of the Neo-Sumerian king Ur-Nammu, who created it in an effort to unify the southern and northern parts of lower Mesopotamia under his rule. The older Akkadian kings themselves might have been against linking Sumer and Akkad in such a way.
  In later centuries of Mesopotamian history, when the major kingdoms were Assyria and Babylon, the title was mostly used by monarchs of Babylon since they ruled lower Mesopotamia.
context_section_description: After the collapse of the Dynasty of Isin, king Rim-Sin of Larsa (r. c. 1758–1699 BC) claimed its legacy but he was soon defeated by Hammurabi of Babylon (r. c. 1728–1686 BC) who conquered the considerable kingdom that Rim-Sin ruled (which included prominent cities like Uruk and the previous capital Isin). Through either outright conquest or forcing other states to pay tribute, Hammurabi extended Babylonian rule throughout Mesopotamia and while his early reign may be characterizable as a dual monarchy of sorts, ruling both Sumer and Akkad as more or less separate entities, his conquests to the northeast and north saw the formation of a true empire, which would not stay intact under his successors. As part in the formation of his empire, Hammurabi took the traditional ruling title of King of Sumer and Akkad, which after his reign appears sporadically in the titularies of Babylonian kings up until the eighth century BC.
  Apart from the Babylonian kings, those Assyrian rulers who succeeding in conquering and controlling Babylon and Sumer also used the title of King of Sumer and Akkad. The earliest Assyrian king to succeed in this was the Middle Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. c. 1244–1208 BC). After his reign, Babylon swiftly regained independence and as such the title would not be used by an Assyrian ruler for five hundred years (except for being claimed by Shamshi-Adad V, c. 824–811 BC, who did not actually control Babylon) until Babylon was reconquered under Tiglath-Pileser III (r. c. 745–727 BC). After Tiglath-Pileser III's reign, Babylon rebelled again and his son Sargon II (r. c. 722–705 BC) was also forced to reconquer it once more, only using the title upon his victory. For unknown reasons Sargon II's heir Sennacherib discarded the title but it was in turn reintroduced by Sennacherib's heir Esarhaddon.
  In the light of the Neo-Assyrian Empire's southern conquests, southern titles and epithets, including King of Sumer and Akkad, would have been important in order to assert control. The title allowed the Assyrian king to align himself with both the Akkadian and the Sumerian cultures. With "Sumer" referring to the coastal regions of southern Mespotamia and Akkad the northern parts of the south, the title claimed control over all of lower Mesopotamia. To the Assyrians, the title was not only a claim to the prestige and legacy of Sargon of Akkad and the Akkadian Empire, but also a formal assertion of sovereignty over Babylon. After the Neo-Assyrian Empire lost control over Babylon for good with the founding of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Assyrian kings ceased to use the title. "King of Sumer and Akkad" was instead adopted by the first Neo-Babylonian king, Nabopolassar (r. c. 626–605 BC) The title continued to be used by the monarchs of the Neo-Babylonian Empire until its fall.
caption: Tiglath-Pileser III (r. c. 745–727 BC) on a stela from the walls of his palace (now in the British Museum, London). Tiglath-Pileser was the first Assyrian king in centuries (except for a claim by Shamshi-Adad V) to use the title of King of Sumer and Akkad following his conquest of Babylon.
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