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|title=Dawn of Empire

|author=Sam Barone

|date=January 2007

|isbn=978-1846050503

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In ''Dawn of Empire'', Sam Barone takes a relatively unexplored period of ancient history, and weaves a fabulous page turner around it. It's the third century BC in the Tigris valley, and the earliest farmers are beginning to establish co-operative agricultural settlements with farms clustered around villages. Trade lines are beginning to spring up and humans are learning ways in which to make their lives easier. However, this new culture finds itself in conflict with the old culture of the nomadic peoples of the steppes. These barbarian warriors abhor the "dirt-eaters" and rely upon them for food, horses and slaves. They cannot allow any village to become too big or too strong for such a village would threaten their way of life. Of course, the villages did eventually become too big and too strong. They eventually developed ways to defend themselves, built the first walled cities, and provided the foundations for one of the world's first empires - the Akkadian Empire led by Sargon.