From Pete Murray:
Some people are fast out of the gate in Civ. The Aztec, for example, and the Scythians, are two Civs that bring a lot of hurt early. But Sumeria is something else entirely. When humanity wakes at the Dawn of Time in Civ, Gilgamesh has been up for half an hour already, has made you breakfast, built a Ziggurat, hitched up the War Cart, and is ready to go.
Gilgamesh is your new best friend. He loves, and I mean loves his allies. He feels your pain. He rejoices when you rejoice. He goes to war with you. He is fired up. He has the car loaded. Montezuma declares war on you. Before Tomyris is finished denouncing him, Gilgamesh is punching Monty in the face with his enormous, beefy fists. He calls his left fist "The Vengence of Ur" and his right fist "The Vengence of Enlil." You've pointed out that maybe he could pick another nickname than "Vengence" for one of those fists, but he always laughs and slaps you so hard on the back you can hear your teeth rattle.
Then he holds Monty upside down and shakes him, and points to the pocket change that falls out: "Go halfsies?" he asks, grinning.
Everyone knows that Gilgamesh is about the business. Everyone knows you don't touch his friends, because he will come for you. And when you play as Gilgamesh, you can take care of your friends when they get hurt.
You don't get the Warmonger penalty when you declare war on anyone at war with your allies. You are Gilgamesh. You look after your own, man. Because you know, deep down inside, in the marrow of your bones, that it wasn't technology or religion or agriculture that caused civilization to come into being.
It was friendship. Gilgamesh extends the Vengence of Enlil to you, and you bump it with your own.
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