Now the Sumerians themselves had a really good run at it. Remember, they start around 3500 BCE and about a thousand years later, a little more than a thousand years, although they were on the fighting downfall for a while, they're finally going to be overtaken by the Akkadians. Akkad was a city-state that was north of where Sumer was and their leader was the Sargon of Akkad. And Sargon of Akkad is going to have the distinct pleasure of being the first leader of an empire. An empire. Not just a city-state, not just a civilization, but an empire. A real empire.