Akkadians, an ancient people who inhabited a region of lower Mesopotamia known as Akkad, so called from their capital city (Accad in the Bible; Agade in inscriptions). The Akkadians were Semitic nomads from Arabia who appeared in Akkad around 3000 B.C. About 2340 B.C., Sargon, an Akkadian king, conquered the Sumerian city-states to the south and part of Assyria to the north, establishing the Akkadian Empire. The empire gradually declined until it was overthrown some two centuries later by the Guti, a tribe of northern barbarians. Akkad itself was conquered by the Amorites around 2000 B.C. and became part of the Old Babylonian Empire.