Hammurabi: Conquerer, King, and Law-Giver (opens in new tab)

Hammurabi is best remembered today as a lawgiver whose code served as a standard for later laws but, in his time, he was known as the ruler who united Mesopotamia under a single governing body in the same way Sargon of Akkad (also known as Sargon the Great, reign 2334-2279 BCE) had done centuries before. Hammurabi linked himself with great imperialists like Sargon by proclaiming himself "the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the Four Regions of the World, king of Sumer and Akkad, into who...