DIRECTORY

The earliest empires date to around 2300 bce. Many empires were initially founded by military chiefs and later maintained by dynastic emperors. The best rulers incorporated the cultures of their conquered people and practiced religious tolerance to dispel discontent.

The legendary first pharaoh of ancient Egypt, Menes is traditionally credited with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt to create a single peaceful and prosperous kingdom, and with establishing the First Dynasty. He is also typically ascribed as the founder of Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt. However, due to a lack of archaeological evidence to Menes’s existence as an individual, many scholars now believe that the name “Menes” is a title used for several early pharaohs, including King Narmer, and that their collective achievements have been attributed to this single identity.

In the 23rd century bce, Sargon of Akkad was said to have risen from humble beginnings to become the founding ruler of the Akkadian Empire. One of the world’s first empire builders, he seized the Sumerian (south Iraq) city-states and expanded his territory by conquering southern Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (part of modern-day Iran). As such, he created the world’s first thriving multinational empire, establishing infrastructure, encouraging trade, and even creating the world’s first postal system. His 50-year reign is remembered as a golden age of the Akkadian Empire.

The best-known ruler of Babylon’s First Dynasty, Hammurabi inherited the throne to become the sixth Babylonian king. He was an accomplished military leader and expanded the kingdom to conquer all of ancient Mesopotamia, uniting it under a single authority. He was known for his public works: constructing canals and irrigation systems, improving food distribution, and building temples. Hammurabi’s greatest legacy is his code of law, which established a set punishment for every crime; one of the earliest codes of this type, it set a standard for rulers of later societies to follow.

Cyrus II of Persia was founder and first king of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. His campaigns defeated the most powerful kingdoms of the time—Media, Babylonia, and Lydia—and brought most of the Middle East under Persian control. Yet Cyrus allowed local administrations to persist and accepted the cultures and religions of those he conquered. In doing so, he earned respect and loyalty and became known as the “Father” of his people.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius (Kongfuzi) set out a series of moral and ethical teachings that have greatly influenced Chinese culture to this day. He saw himself as the voice of an ancient moral tradition that promoted virtuous living, the respect of elders, and family loyalty and emphasized the importance of teachers and leaders as role models for society. His teachings are contained within the Analects—a collection of his thinking, compiled by his disciples, and which includes, most famously, the quote: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”

The third and last emperor of India’s Mauryan Empire, Ashoka expanded the empire to cover almost all of the Indian subcontinent, from modern-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. Initially a harsh ruler of his own people and conqueror of other territories—notably a state called Kalinga—he later converted to Buddhism and proclaimed remorse for the suffering he had inflicted. From that point, Ashoka renounced war. In further edicts, he called for social compassion and religious freedom. He also turned the tradition of Buddhism into a state ideology and is largely responsible for its status as a world religion today.

While little is known conclusively about the life of Spartacus, historical records agree that he was a famous former gladiator who led the most successful slave rebellion in ancient Roman history. Formerly from Thrace, a region northwest of Macedonia, Spartacus was enslaved by the Romans and was then trained as a gladiator in Capua. Along with 70 others, he escaped from a gladiatorial training camp and spent two years trying to avoid recapture while raiding towns for supplies. Spartacus proved himself a master military tactician, leading two successful victories over the Romans.

One of the most feared and brilliant military leaders in history, Attila ruled the Huns, an ancient nomadic people, and headed an empire including other nomadic tribes. A charismatic leader and skilled horseman, Attila forged his Hunnic Empire in less than 10 years. He led his vast armies in a series of campaigns against the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, to conquer an area reaching from Central Asia to Gaul (modern-day France). He died on his wedding night, choking on his own nosebleed while in a drunk stupor. Within 15 years of his death, Attila’s empire had crumbled.

Flavius Justinius, also known as Justinian the Great, was emperor of the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire). During his 40-year reign, he fought the Persians in the Caucasus and retook North Africa from the Vandals, and Italy and Sicily from the Goths. He also launched an empire-wide initiative to build forts, bridges, churches (notably the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople), monasteries, and reservoirs. His greatest achievement was the codification of all Roman laws; known as the Codex Justinianus, these legal reforms laid the foundations of Byzantine law for more than 900 years.

Information about Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire in western Africa, is sourced from oral history. Born into the Keita clan in the kingdom of Kangaba, Sundiata survived the massacre of his family and became head of his clan. The ruling Ghanaian Empire was in decline and Sundiata increased his power by invading other states. When he destroyed the capital of Ghana, the former empire crumbled, and Sundiata founded his own Mali Empire. He established Niani as his capital city, which became a center for trade in West Africa.

Isabella I of Spain united two Spanish kingdoms by becoming Queen of Castile in 1474 and of Aragon in 1479; ruling both kingdoms with her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon. A staunch Catholic, Isabella established the Inquisition, a judicial institution intended to identify heretics. Among her greatest achievements was the capture of Granada—completing the Christian reconquest of Spain—and her sponsorship of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the Americas, which led to the founding of the Spanish Empire.

A direct descendent of both Genghis Khan and Amir Timur, Babur was the founding emperor of the Mughal Empire. Babur was born into the Turkish-influenced Barlas tribe, in central Asia. His first achievement, at 15 years old, was to briefly reclaim the empire’s capital of Samarkand. He seized Kabul in 1504 and then Delhi in 1526, winning control of northern India. He is considered one of the Mughal Dynasty’s greatest emperors; in addition to his political and military achievements, he was also a gifted orator, poet, and writer.

The German theologian Martin Luther was a pivotal figure in the development of Christianity and civilization in Europe. Having been ordained in 1507, he became disillusioned by the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church and published several works rejecting its teachings. Luther was excommunicated, but his writings triggered the Protestant Reformation, resulting in the division of Western Christianity into different denominations. He also published a translation of the Bible’s New Testament in the German vernacular, which helped the development and spread of a standardized German language.