X. The Citadel Mound of Carchemish from the north-west. After Hogarth, Carchemish, Pl. 1A
X. The Citadel Mound of Carchemish from the north-west. After Hogarth, Carchemish, Pl. 1A
Carchemish lies out of the direct road from Babylon to Northern Syria, and it is remarkable that any trace of early Babylonian influence should have been found so far to the north as the mouth of the Sajûr. It is farther down stream, after the Euphrates has turned eastward towards its junction with the Khâbûr, that we should expect to find evidence of a more striking character; and it is precisely there, along the river route from Syria to Akkad, that we have recovered definite proof, at the time of the First Dynasty of Babylon, of the existence of Amorite or West-Semitic settlements with a culture that was Babylonian in its essential features. The evidence is drawn mainly from one district, the kingdom of Khana, which lay not far from the mouth of the Khâbûr. One of the chief towns, and probably the capital of the kingdom, was Tirka, the site of which probably lay near Tell 'Ashar or Tell 'Ishar, a place situated between Dêr ez-Zôr and Sâlihîya and about four hours from the latter. The identification is certain, since an Assyrian inscription of the ninth century was found there, recording the rebuilding of the local temple which is stated in the text to have been "in Tirka."[15]From about this region three tablets have also been recovered, all dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon and throwing considerable light on the character of West Semitic culture in a district within the reach of Babylonian influence.
One of these documents records a deed of gift by which Isharlim, a king of Khana, conveys to one of his subjects a house in a village within the district of Tirka.[16]On a second document is inscribed a similar deed of gift by which another king of the same district, Ammi-baïl, the son of Shunu'-rammu, bestows two plots of land on a certain Pagirum, described as "his servant," evidentlyin return for faithful service;[17]and, as one of the plots was in Tirka, it is probable that the deed was drawn up in that city. The third document is perhaps the most interesting of the three, since it contains a marriage-contract and is dated in the reign of a king who bears the name of Hammurabih. This last ruler has by some been confidently regarded as identical with Hammurabi of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and it has been assumed that it was drawn up at a time when Khana had been conquered and annexed by that monarch, of whose advance into that region we have independent evidence.[18]But since the tablet appears to be the latest of the three, it is clear that Khana had been subject to Babylonian influence long before Hammurabi's conquest. And, even if we regard Hammurabih as no more than a local king of Khana, the document has furnished us with a West-Semitic variant of Hammurabi's name, or one that is closely parallel to it.
The remarkable fact about all these texts is that they are drawn up in the style of legal documents of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon. But, while the terminology is much the same, it has been adapted to local conditions. The early Babylonian method of dating by events[19]has been taken over, but the formulas are not those in use at this period in Babylonia, but are peculiar to the kingdom of Khana. Thus the first deed of gift is dated in the year when Isharlim, the king, built the great gate of the palace in the city of Kash-dakh; the second was drawn up in the year in which Ammi-baïl, the king, ascended the throne in his father's house; while the marriage-contract is dated in the year that Hammurabih, the king, opened the canal Khabur-ibal-bugash from the city of Zakku-Isharlim to the city of Zakku-Igitlim.[20]The names of the months, too, arenot those of Babylon,[21]and we find evidence that local laws and customs were in force. Each of the deeds of gift, for example, provides that any infringement of the rights bestowed by the king is to be punished by a money-fine of ten manehs of silver, and in addition the delinquent is to undergo the quaint but doubtless very painful process of having his head tarred with hot tar. From the list of witnesses we gather that the community was already organized much on the lines of a provincial district of Babylonia. For, though we find a cultivator or farmer occupying an important position, we meet also a superintendent of the merchants, another of the bakers, a chief judge, a chief seer, and members of the priesthood. It is interesting, too, to note that the kings of Khana were still great landowners, to judge from the fact that the lands conveyed in the deeds of gift were surrounded on almost every side by palace-property. At the same time the chief gods of Khana are associated with the king in the oath-formulæ, since the royal property was also regarded as the property of the Ba'al, or divine "Lord" of the soil.
The two chief Baalim or "Lords" of Khana were the Sun-god and the West-Semitic deity, Dagon. The latter is constantly referred to in the documents under the Babylonian form of his name, Dagan. He stood beside Shamash on the royal seal and in the local oath-formulæ, and is associated in the latter with Iturmer, who may well have been the old local god of Tirka, deposed after the invasion of the Semites. His temple in Tirka, which we know survived until the ninth century,[22]was probably the chief shrine of the city, and the great part he played in the national life is attested by the constant occurrence of his title as a component part of personal names.[23]Later evidence proves thatDagon was peculiarly the god of Ashdod, and the princely writer of two of the letters from Tell el-Amarna, who bore the name Dagan-takala, must have ruled some district of northern or central Canaan. The Khana documents prove that already at the time of the First Dynasty his cult was established on the Euphrates, and, in view of this fact, the occurrence of two early kings of the Babylonian Dynasty of Nîsin with the names of Idin-Dagan and Ishme-Dagan is certainly significant. We know, too, that the original home of Ishbi-Ura, the founder of the Dynasty of Nîsin, was Mari, a city and district on the middle Euphrates.[24]We may conclude, then, that the Dynasties of Nîsin and Babylon, and probably that of Larsa, were products of the same great racial movement, and that, more than a century before Sumu-abum established his throne at Babylon, Western Semites had descended the Euphrates and had penetrated into the southern districts of the country.
The new-comers probably owed their speedy success in Babylonia in great part to the fact that many of the immigrant tribes had already acquired the elements of Babylonian culture. During their previous residence within the sphere of settled civilization they had adopted a way of life and a social organization which differed but little from that of the country into which they came. That they should have immigrated at all in a south-easterly direction, in preference to remaining within their own borders, was doubtless due to racial pressure to which they themselves had been subjected. Canaan was still in a ferment of unrest in consequence of the arrival of fresh nomad tribes within her settled districts, and, while many were doubtless diverted southwards towards the Egyptian border, others pressed northwards into Syria, exerting an outward pressure in their advance. That the West-Semitic invasion of Babylonia differed so essentially from that of Egypt by the Hyksos is to be explained by this fringe of civilized settlements and petty kingdoms, which formed a check upon the nomad hordes behind them and dominated such of them assucceeded in breaking through. In Egypt the damage wrought by the Semitic barbarians was remembered for generations after their expulsion,[25]whereas in Babylonia the invaders succeeded in establishing a dynasty which gave its permanent form to Babylonian civilization.
Nîsin, the city in which, as we have seen, we first obtain an indication of the presence of West-Semitic rulers, probably lay in Southern Babylonia, and we may picture the earlier immigrants as descending the course of the Euphrates until they found an opportunity of establishing themselves in the Babylonian plain. The Elamite conquest, which put an end to the dynasty of Ur, and stripped Babylonia of her eastern provinces,[26]afforded Nîsin the opportunity of claiming the hegemony. Ishbi-Ura, the founder of the new dynasty of kings, established his own family upon the throne for nearly a century, and we may probably regard his success in bringing his city to the front as due to the Semitic elements in Southern Babylonia, recently reinforced by fresh accretions from the north-west. The centralization of authority under the later kings of Ur had led to abuses in the administration, and to the revolt of the Elamite provinces; and when an invading army appeared before the capital and carried the king, whom his courtiers had deified, to captivity in Elam,[27]Sumerian prestige received a blow from which it never recovered.
Shortly after Ishbi-Ura had established himself in Nîsin, we find another noble, who bore the Semitic name Naplanum, following his example, and founding an independent line of rulers in the neighbouring city of Larsa. But, in spite of the Semitic names borne by these two leaders and by the kings who succeeded them in their respective cities, it is clear that no great change took place in the character of the population. The commercial and administrative documents of the Nîsin period closely resemble those of the Dynasty of Ur, andevidently reflect an unbroken sequence in the course of the national life.[28]The great bulk of the southern Babylonians were still Sumerian, and we may regard the new dynasties both at Nîsin and Larsa as representing a comparatively small racial aristocracy, which by organizing the national forces in resistance to the Elamites, had succeeded in imposing their own rule upon the native population. At Nîsin the unbroken succession of five rulers is evidence of a settled state of affairs, and though Gimil-ilishu reigned for no more than ten years, his son and grandson, as well as his father, Ishbi-Ura, all had long reigns. At Larsa, too, we find Emisu and Samum, who succeeded Naplanum, the founder of the dynasty, each retaining the throne for more than a generation. It is probable that the Sumerians accepted their new rulers without question, and that the latter attempted to introduce no startling innovations into their system of administrative control.
Of the two contemporaneous dynasties in Southern Babylonia, there is no doubt that Nîsin was the more important. Not only have we the direct evidence of the Nippur Kings' List that it was to Nîsin the hegemony passed from Ur,[29]but what votive texts and building-records have been recovered prove that its rulers extended their sway over other of the great cities of Sumer and Akkad. A fragmentary text of Idin-Dagan, the son and successor of Gimil-ilishu, found at Abû Habba, proves that Sippar acknowledged his authority,[30]and inscribed bricks of his own son Ishme-Dagan have been found in the south at Ur.[31]
In all their inscriptions, too, the kings of Nîsin lay claim to the rule of Sumer and Akkad, while Ishme-Dagan and his son Libit-Ishtar[32]adopt further descriptivetitles implying beneficent activities on their part in the cities of Nippur, Ur, Erech and Eridu. The recently published inscriptions of Libit-Ishtar, which were recovered during the American excavations at Nippur, prove that in his reign the central city and shrine of Babylonia were under Nîsin's active control. But he was the last king in the direct line from Ishbi-Ura, and it is probable that the break in the succession may be connected with a temporary depression in the fortunes of the city; for we shortly have evidence of an increase in the power of Larsa, in consequence of which the city of Ur acknowledged her suserainty in place of that of Nîsin. At the time of Libit-Ishtar's death Zabâia was reigning at Larsa, but after three years the latter was succeeded by Gungunum, who not only bore the titles of king of Larsa and of Ur, but laid claim to the rule of Sumer and Akkad.
At any rate, one member of the old dynastic family of Nîsin acknowledged these new claims. Enannatum, Libit-Ishtar's brother, was at this time chief priest of the Moon-temple in Ur, and on cones discovered at Mukayyar he commemorates the rebuilding of the Sun-temple at Larsa for the preservation of his own life and that of Gungunum.[33]It is possible that when Ur-Ninib secured the throne of Nîsin, the surviving members of Ishbi-Ura's family fled from the city to its rival, and that Enannatum, one of the most powerful of their number, and possibly the direct heir to his brother's throne, was installed by Gungunum in the high-priestly office at Ur. It would be tempting to connect Libit-Ishtar's fall with a fresh incursion of West-Semitic tribes, who, recking little of any racial connexion with themselves on the part of the reigning family at Nîsin may have attacked the city with some success until defeated and driven off by Ur-Ninib. We now know that Ur-Ninib conducted a successful campaign against the Su tribes on the west of Babylonia,[34]and in supportof the suggestion it would be possible to cite the much discussed date-formula upon a tablet in the British Museum, which was drawn up in "the year in which the Amurru drove out Libit-Ishtar."[35]But since the Libit-Ishtar of the formula has no title, it is also possible to identify him with a provincial governor, probably of Sippar, who bore the name of Libit-Ishtar, and seems to be referred to on other documents inscribed in the reign of Apil-Sin, the grandfather of Hammurabi.[36]The date assigned to the invasion on the second alternative would correspond to another period of unrest at Nîsin, which followed the long reign of Enlil-bani, so that on either alternative we may conjecture that the city of Nîsin was affected for a time by a new incursion of Amorites.
Whether the fall of Libit-Ishtar may be traced to such a cause or not, we now know that it was during the reigns of Ur-Ninib and Gungunum, at Nîsin and at Larsa respectively, that a West-Semitic Dynasty was established at Babylon. Northern Babylonia now fell under the political control of the invaders, and it is significant of the new direction of their advance that the only conflict connected in later tradition with the name of Sumu-abum, the founder of Babylon's independent line of rulers, was not with either of the dominant cities in Sumer, but with Assyria in the far north. On a late chronicle it is recorded that Ilu-shûma, King of Assyria, marched against Su-abu, or Sumu-abum,[37]and though the result of the encounter is not related, we may assume that his motive in making the attack was to check encroachments of the invaders towards the north and drive them southward into Babylonia. Ilu-shûma's own name is purely Semitic, and since the Amorite god Dagan enters into the composition of a name borne by more than one early Assyrian ruler,we may assume that Assyria received her Semitic population at about this period as another offshoot of the Amorite migration.
FIG. 34.HEAD OF AN ARCHAIC LIMESTONE FIGURE FROM ASHUR.The primitive character of the sculpture is apparent, and the inlaying of the eyes with shell is characteristic of early work in Babylonia. The figure is possibly that of a female.(AfterMitt. der Deutsch. Orient-Gesellschaft,No. 54, p. 9.)
FIG. 34.
HEAD OF AN ARCHAIC LIMESTONE FIGURE FROM ASHUR.
The primitive character of the sculpture is apparent, and the inlaying of the eyes with shell is characteristic of early work in Babylonia. The figure is possibly that of a female.
(AfterMitt. der Deutsch. Orient-Gesellschaft,No. 54, p. 9.)
This assumption does not rest entirely on evidence supplied by the royal names, but finds indirect confirmation in recent archæological research. The excavations on the site of Ashur, the earliest Assyrian capital, tend to show that the first settlements in that country, of which we have recovered traces, were made by a people closely akin to the Sumerians of Southern Babylonia.[38]It was in the course of work upon a temple dedicated to Ishtar, the national goddess of Assyria, that remains were found of very early periods of occupation. Below the foundation of the later building a still older temple was found, also dedicated to that goddess. Incidentally this building has an interest of its own, for it proved to be the earliest temple yet discovered in Assyria, dating, as it probably does, from the close of the third millenniumb.c.Still deeper excavation, below the level of this primitive Assyrian shrine, revealed a stratum in which were several examples of rude sculpture, apparently representing, not Semites, but the early non-Semitic inhabitants of Southern Babylonia.
The extremely archaic character of the work is well illustrated by a head, possibly that of a female figure,[39]in which the inlaying of the eyes recalls a familiar practice in early work from Babylonia. But the most striking evidence was furnished by heads of male figures, which, if offered for sale without a knowledge of theirprovenance,would undoubtedly have been accepted as coming from Tello or Bismâya, the sites of the early Sumerian cities of Lagash and Adab. The racial type presented by the heads appears to be purely Sumerian, and, though one figure at least is bearded, the Sumerian practice of shaving the head was evidently in vogue.[40]
FIG. 35. FIG. 36.HEADS OF ARCHAIC MALE FIGURES FROM ASHUR AND TELLO.A marked feature of both heads is the shaven scalp, exhibiting a characteristic Sumerian practice. Fig. 35 is from Ashur, Fig. 36 from Tello. (AfterM.D.O.G.,No. 54, p. 12, and De Sarzec,Découvertes en Chaldée,pl. 6, No. 1.)
FIG. 35. FIG. 36.
HEADS OF ARCHAIC MALE FIGURES FROM ASHUR AND TELLO.
A marked feature of both heads is the shaven scalp, exhibiting a characteristic Sumerian practice. Fig. 35 is from Ashur, Fig. 36 from Tello. (AfterM.D.O.G.,No. 54, p. 12, and De Sarzec,Découvertes en Chaldée,pl. 6, No. 1.)
In other limestone figures, of which the bodies have been preserved, the treatment of the garments corresponds precisely to that in archaic Sumerian sculpture. The figures wear the same rough woollen garments, and the conventionalized treatment of the separate flocks of wool is identical in both sets of examples.[41]The evidence is not yet fully published, but, so far as it is available, it suggests that the Sumerians, whose presence has hitherto been traced only upon sites in Southern Babylonia, were also at a very early period in occupation of Assyria.
The violent termination of their settlement at Ashur is attested by an abundance of charred remains, which separate the Sumerian stratum from that immediately above it. Had we no evidence to the contrary, it might have been assumed that their successors were of the same stock as those early Semitic invaders who dominated Northern Babylonia early in the third millenniumb.c., and pushed eastward across the Tigris into Gutium. But it is recognized that the founders of the historic city of Ashur, records of whose achievements have been recovered in the early building-inscriptions, bear names which are quite un-Semitic in character. There is a good deal to be said for regarding Ushpia, or Aushpia, the traditional founder of the great temple of the god Ashir,[42]and Kikia, the earliest builder of the city's wall,[43]as representing the first arrival of the Mitannian race, which in the fourteenth century played, under new leadership, so dominant a part in the politics of Western Asia.[44]Not only have their names a Mitannian sound, but we have undoubted evidence of the worship of the Mitannian and Hittite god Teshub as early as the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon; and the fact that the Mitannian name, which incorporates that of the deity, is borne by a witness on a Babylonian contract, suggests that he came of a civilized and settled race.[45]
It is true that the name Mitanni is not met with at this period, but the geographical term Subartu is,[46]andin later tradition was regarded as having ranked with Akkad, Elam and Amurru as one of the four quarters of the ancient civilized world.
FIG. 37. — FIG. 38. — FIG. 39.EXAMPLES OF ARCHAIC SCULPTURE FROM ASHUR AND TELLO, EXHIBITING THE SAME CONVENTION IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOLLEN GARMENTS.The seated statuette (Fig. 37) is from Ashur, and the treatment of the garment is precisely similar to that in early Tello work (Figs. 38 and 39). AfterM.D.O.G.,No. 54, p. 18, andDéc.pl. 2 (bis,) No. 1, and pl. 21 (ter,) No. 3.)
FIG. 37. — FIG. 38. — FIG. 39.
EXAMPLES OF ARCHAIC SCULPTURE FROM ASHUR AND TELLO, EXHIBITING THE SAME CONVENTION IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOLLEN GARMENTS.
The seated statuette (Fig. 37) is from Ashur, and the treatment of the garment is precisely similar to that in early Tello work (Figs. 38 and 39). AfterM.D.O.G.,No. 54, p. 18, andDéc.pl. 2 (bis,) No. 1, and pl. 21 (ter,) No. 3.)
In the astrological and omen texts, which incorporate very early traditions, the references to Shubartu are interpreted as applying to Assyria,[47]but the term evidently had an earlier connotation before the rise of Assyria to power. It may well have included the North-Mesopotamian region known afterwards as the land of Mitanni, whose rulers are found in temporary occupation of Nineveh, as their predecessors may have established themselves at Ashur. But, however that may be, it is clear that the historic city of Ashur wasnot in its origin either a Sumerian or a Semitic foundation. Its later racial character must date from the period of the Western Semites, whose amalgamation with an alien and probably Anatolian strain, which they found there, may account in part for the warlike and brutal character of the Assyrians of history, so striking a contrast to that of the milder and more commercial Semites who settled in the lower Euphrates valley. As in Babylonia, the language and to a great extent the features of the Semite eventually predominated; and the other element in the composition of the race survived only in an increased ferocity of temperament.
This was the people of whose attack on Sumu-abum, the founder of Babylon's greatness, later ages preserved the tradition. No conflict with Assyria is commemorated in Sumu-abum's date-formulæ, and it is possible that it took place before he secured his throne in Babylon, and built the great fortification-wall of the city with which he inaugurated his reign. When once he was settled there and had placed the town in a state of defence, he began to extend his influence over neighbouring cities in Akkad. Kibalbarru, which he fortified with a city-wall in his third year, was probably in the immediate neighbourhood of Babylon, and we know that Dilbat, the fortification of which was completed in his ninth year, lay only about seventeen miles south of the capital.[48]The five years which separated these two efforts at expansion were uneventful from the point of view of political achievement, for the only noteworthy episodes recorded were the building of a temple to the goddess Nin-Sinna and another to Nannar, the Moon-god, in which he afterwards set up a great cedar door. It may be that the conflict with Assyria should be set in this interval; but we should then have expected some sort of reference to the successful repulse of the enemy, and it is preferable to place it before his first year of rule.
His success in the encounter with Assyria may well have afforded this West-Semitic chieftain the opportunity of fortifying one of the great towns of Akkad, and of establishing himself there as its protector against the danger of aggression from the north; and there is no doubt that Babylon had long had some sort of local governor, the traditions of whose office he inherited. Since we have references to E-sagila in the time of the Dynasties of Akkad and of Ur,[49]the former rulers of Babylon were probably no more than the chief priests of Marduk's sanctuary. That Sumu-abum should have changed the office to that of king, and that his successor should have succeeded in establishing a dynasty that endured for nearly three centuries, is evidence of the unabated energy of the new settlers. Even the later members of the dynasty retained their original West-Semitic character,[50]and this fact, coupled with the speedy control of other cities than Babylon, suggests that the Western Semites had now arrived in far greater numbers than during their earlier migration farther down the Euphrates.
It is possible to trace the gradual growth of Babylon's influence in Akkad under her new rulers, and the stages by which she threw out her control over an increasing area of territory. At Dilbat, for example, she had no difficulties from the very first, and during almost the whole period of the First Dynasty the government of the city was scarcely distinguishable from that of Babylon. The god Urash and the goddess Lagamal were the patron deities of Dilbat, around whose cult the life of the city centred; and there was a local secular administration. But the latter was completely subordinate to the capital, and no effort was made, nor apparently was one required, to retain a semblance of local independence. The treatment of Sippar, on the other hand, was rather different. Here Sumu-abum appears to have recognized the local ruleras his vassal; and, as a further concession to its semi-independent state, he allowed the town the privilege of continuing to use its own date-formulæ, derived from local events.[51]Oaths, it is true, had to be taken in the king of Babylon's name and in that of the great Sun-god of Sippar; but the city could arrange and use its own system of time-reckoning without reference to the capital's affairs. Perhaps the most interesting example of Babylon's early system of provincial government is that presented by the city of Kish, for we can there trace the gradual extension of her control from a limited suzerainty to complete annexation.
Kish lay far nearer to Babylon than Dilbat,[52]but it had a more illustrious past to inspire it than the other city. It had played a great part in the earlier history of Sumer and Akkad, and at the time of the West-Semitic occupation of Babylon it was still governed by independent kings. We have recovered an inscription of one such ruler, Ashduni-erim, who may well have been Sumu-abum's contemporary, for the record reflects a state of affairs such as would have been caused by a hostile invasion and gradual conquest of the country.[53]Although Ashduni-erim lays claim only to the kingdom of Kish, he speaks in grandiloquent terms of the invasion, relating how the four quarters of the world revolted against him. For eight years he fought against the enemy, so that in the eighth year his army was reduced to three hundred men. But the city-god Zamama and Ishtar, his consort, then came to his succour and brought him supplies of food. With this encouragement he marched out for a whole day, and then for forty days he placed the enemy's land under contribution; and he closes his inscription ratherabruptly by recording that he rebuilt the wall of Kish. The clay cone was probably a foundation-record, which he buried within the structure of the city-wall.
Ashduni-erim does not refer to his enemy by name, but it is to be noted that the hostile territory lay within a day's march of Kish, a description that surely points to Babylon. The eight years of conflict fit in admirably with the suggestion, for we know that it was in Sumu-abum's tenth year, exactly eight years after his occupation of Kibalbarru, that his suzerainty was acknowledged in Kish. Sumu-abum named that year of his reign after his dedication of a crown to the god Anu of Kish,[54]and we may conjecture that Ashduni-erim, weakened by the long conflict which he describes, came to terms with his stronger neighbour and accepted the position of a vassal. Having given guarantees for his fidelity, he would have received Sumu-abum in Kish, where the latter as the suzerain of the city performed the dedication he commemorated in his date-formula for that year. This would fully explain the guarded terms in which Ashduni-erim refers to the enemy in his inscription, the rebuilding of the city-wall having, on this supposition, been undertaken with Babylon's consent.[55]
HAMMURABI RECEIVING HIS LAWS FROM THE SUN GOD.After Délég. en Perse, Mém. IV, pl. 3
HAMMURABI RECEIVING HIS LAWS FROM THE SUN GOD.After Délég. en Perse, Mém. IV, pl. 3
That Kish was accorded the position of a vassal state is certain, for, among contract-tablets recovered from the city, several were drawn up in the reign of Mananâ, who was Sumu-abum's vassal. In these documents the oath is taken in Mananâ's name, but they are dated by the formula for Sumu-abum's thirteenth year, commemorating his capture of Kazallu. The importance of the latter event may be held to explain the use of the suzerain's own formula, for other documents in Mananâ's reign are dated by local events, proving that at Kish, as at Sippar, a vassal city of Babylon was allowed the privilege of retaining its own system of time-reckoning. If we are right in regardingAshduni-erim as Sumu-abum's contemporary, it is clear that he must have been succeeded by Mananâ within three years of his capitulation to Babylon. During the next few years the throne of Kish was occupied by at least three rulers in quick succession, Sumu-ditana, Iawium, and Khalium,[56]for we know that by the thirteenth year of Sumu-la-ilum, who succeeded Sumu-abum on the throne of Babylon, the city of Kish had revolted and had been finally annexed.
The conquest of Kazallu, winch Sumu-abum carried out in the last year but one of his reign, was the most important of Babylon's early victories, for it marked an extension of her influence beyond the limits of Akkad. The city appears to have lain to the east of the Tigris, and the two most powerful empires in the past history of Babylonia had each come into active conflict with it during the early years of their existence. Its conquest by Akkad was regarded in Babylonian tradition as the most notable achievement of Sargon's reign; and at a later period Dungi of Ur, after capturing the Elamite border city of Dêr, had extended his empire to the north or east by including Kazallu within its borders.[57]Sumu-abum's conquest was probably little more than a successful raid, for in the reign of Sumu-la-ilum Kazallu in its turn attacked Babylon, and, by fully occupying her energies, delayed her southward expansion for some years.
In the earlier part of his reign Sumu-la-ilum appears to have devoted himself to consolidating the position his predecessor had secured and to improving the internal resources of his kingdom. The Shamash-khegallum Canal, which he cut immediately on his accession, lay probably in the neighbourhood of Sippar;and later on he further improved the country's system of irrigation by a second canal to which he gave his own name.[58]The policy he thus inaugurated was energetically maintained by his successors, and much of Babylon's wealth and prosperity under her early kings may be traced to the care they lavished on increasing the area of land under cultivation. Sumu-la-ilum also rebuilt the great fortification-wall of his capital, but during his first twelve years he records only one military expedition.[59]It was in his thirteenth year that the revolt and reconquest of Kish put an end to this period of peaceful development.
The importance attached by Babylon to the suppression of this revolt is attested by the fact that for five years it formed an era for the dating of documents, which was only discontinued when the city of Kazallu, under the leadership of Iakhzir-ilum, administered a fresh shock to the growing kingdom by an invasion of Babylonian territory. Iakhzir-ilum appears to have secured the co-operation of Kish by inciting it once more to rebellion, for in the following year Babylon destroyed the wall of Anu in that city; and, after re-establishing her authority there, she devoted her next campaign to carrying the war into the enemy's country. That the subsequent conquest of Kazallu and the defeat of its army failed to afford a fresh subject for a nascent era in the chronology is to be explained by the incompleteness of the victory; for Iakhzir-ilum escaped the fate which overtook his city, and it was only after five years of continued resistance that he was finally defeated and slain.[60]
After disposing of this source of danger from beyond the Tigris, Sumu-la-ilum continued his predecessor's policy of annexation within the limits of Akkad. In his twenty-seventh year he commemorates the destruction and rebuilding of the wall of Cuthah, suggestingthat the city had up to that time maintained its independence and now only yielded it to force of arms. It is significant that in the same year he records that he treated the wall of the god Zakar in a similar fashion, for Dûr-Zakar was one of the defences of Nippur,[61]and lay either within the city-area or in its immediate neighbourhood. That year thus appears to mark Babylon's first bid for the rule of Sumer as well as of Akkad, for the possession of the central city was regarded as carrying with it the right of suzerainty over the whole country. It is noteworthy, too, that this success appears to correspond to a period of great unrest at Nîsin in Southern Babylonia.
During the preceding period of forty years the southern cities had continued to rule within their home territory without interference from Babylon. In spite of Sumu-abum's increasing influence in Northern Babylonia, Ur-Ninib of Nîsin had claimed the control of Akkad in virtue of his possession of Nippur, though his authority cannot have been recognized much farther to the north. Like the earlier king of Nîsin, Ishme-Dagan, he styled himself in addition Lord of Erech and patron of Nippur, Ur and Eridu, and so did his son Bûr-Sin II., who succeeded his father after the latter's long reign of twenty-eight years. Of the group of southern cities Larsa alone continued to boast a line of independent rulers, the throne having passed from Gungunum successively to Abi-sarê[62]and Sumu-ilum; and in the latter's reign it would seem that Larsa for a time even ousted Nîsin from the hegemony in Sinner. For we have recovered at Tello the votive figure of a dog, which a certain priest of Lagash named Abba-dugga dedicated to a goddess on his behalf,[63]and in the inscription he refers to Sumu-ilum as King of Ur, proving that the city had passed from the control of Nîsin to that of Larsa. The goddess, to whom thededication was made, was Nin-Nîsin, "the Lady of Nîsin," a fact suggestive of the further possibility that Nîsin itself may have acknowledged Sumu-ilum for a time. It may be noted that in the list of Nîsin kings one name is missing after those of Itêr-pîsha and Ura-imitti, who followed Bûr-Sin on the throne in quick succession.[64]According to later tradition Ura-imitti had named his gardener, Enlil-bani, to succeed him,[65]and in the list the missing ruler is recorded to have reigned in Nîsin for six months before Enlil-bani's accession. It is perhaps just possible that we should restore his name as that of Sumu-ilum of Larsa,[66]who may have taken advantage of the internal troubles of Nîsin, not only to annex Ur, but to place himself for a few months upon the rival throne, until driven out by Enlil-bani. However that may be, it is certain that Larsa profited by the unrest at Nîsin, and we may perhaps also connect with it Babylon's successful incursion in the south.[67]
There is no doubt that Sumu-la-ilum was the real founder of Babylon's greatness as a military power. We have the testimony of his later descendant Samsu-iluna to the strategic importance of the fortresses he built to protect his country's extended frontier;[68]and, though Dûr-Zakar of Nippur is the only one the position of which can be approximately identified, we may assume that the majority of these lay along the eastand the south sides of Akkad, where the greatest danger of invasion was to be anticipated. It does not seem that Nippur itself passed at this time under more than a temporary control by Babylon, and we may assume that, after his successful raid, Sumu-la-ilum was content to remain within the limits of Akkad, which he strengthened with his line of forts. In his later years he occupied the city of Barzi, and conducted some further military operations, details of which we have not recovered; but those were the last efforts on Babylon's part for more than a generation.
The pause in expansion gave Babylon the opportunity of husbanding her resources, after the first effort of conquest had been rendered permanent in its effect by Sumu-la-ilum. His two immediate successors, Zabum and Apil-Sin, occupied themselves with the internal administration of their kingdom and confined their military activities to keeping the frontier intact. Zabum indeed records a successful attack on Kazallu, no doubt necessitated by renewed aggression on that city's part; but his other most notable achievements were the fortification of Kâr-Shamash, and the construction of a canal or reservoir.[69]Equally uneventful was the reign of Apil-Sin, for though Dûr-muti, the wall of which he rebuilt, may have been acquired as the result of conquest, he too was mainly occupied with the consolidation and improvement of the territory already won. He strengthened the walls of Barzi and Babylon, cut two canals,[70]and rebuilt some of the great temples.[71]As a result of her peaceful development during this period the country was rendered capable of a still greater struggle, which was to free Sumerand Akkad from a foreign domination, and, by over-coming the invader, was to place Babylon for a time at the head of a more powerful and united empire than had yet been seen on the banks of the Euphrates.
The country's new foe was her old rival Elam, who more than once before had by successful invasion affected the course of Babylonian affairs. But on this occasion she did more than raid, harry, and return: she annexed the city of Larsa, and by using it as a centre of control, attempted to extend her influence over the whole of Sumer and Akkad. It was at the close of Apil-Sin's reign at Babylon that Kudur-Mabuk, the ruler of Western Elam, known at this period as the land of Emutbal, invaded Southern Babylonia and, after deposing Sili-Adad[72]of Larsa, installed his own son Warad-Sin upon the throne. It is a testimony to the greatness of this achievement, that Larsa had for some time enjoyed over Nîsin the position of leading city in Sumer. Nûr-Adad, the successor of Sumu-ilum, had retained control of the neighbouring city of Ur, and, though Enlil-bani of Nîsin had continued to lay claim to be King of Sumer and Akkad, this proud title was wrested from Zambia or his successor by Sin-idinnam, Nur-Adad's son.[73]Sin-idinnam, indeed, on bricks from Muḳayyar in the British Museum makes a reference to the military achievements by which he had won the position for his city. In the text his object is to record the rebuilding of the Moon-god's temple in Ur, but he relates that he carried out this work after he had made the foundation of the throneof Larsa secure and had smitten the whole of his enemies with the sword.[74]It is probable that his three successors on the throne, who reigned for less than ten years between them, failed to maintain his level of achievement, and that Sin-magir recovered the hegemony for Nîsin.[75]But Ur, no doubt, remained under Larsa's administration, and it was no mean nor inferior city that Kudur-Mabuk seized and occupied.
The Elamite had seen his opportunity in the continual conflicts which were taking place between the two rival cities of Sumer. In their contest for the hegemony Larsa had proved herself successful for a time, but she was still the weaker city and doubtless more exposed to attack from across the Tigris. Hence her selection by Kudur-Mabuk as a basis for his attempt on the country as a whole. He himself retained his position in Elam as theAddaof Emutbal; but he installed his two sons, Warad-Sin and Rîm-Sin, successively upon the throne of Larsa, and encouraged them to attack Nîsin and to lay claim to the rule of Sumer and Akkad. But the success which attended their efforts soon brought Babylon upon the scene, and we have the curious spectacle of a three-cornered contest, in which Nîsin is at war with Elam, while Babylon is at war in turn with both. That Sin-muballit, the son of Apil-Sin, did not combine with Nîsin to expel the invader from Babylonian soil, may have played at first into the hands of the Elamites. But it is not to be forgotten that the Western Semites of Babylon were still a conquering aristocracy, and their sympathies were far from being involved in the fate of any part of Sumer. Both Elam and Babylon must have foreseen that the capture of Nîsin would prove a decisive advantage to the victor, and each was content to see her weakened in the hope of ultimate success. When Rîm-Sin actually provedthe victor in the long struggle, and Larsa under his regis inherited the traditions as well as the material resources of the Nîsin Dynasty, the three-cornered contest was reduced to a duel between Babylon and a more powerful Larsa. Then for a generation there ensued a fierce struggle between the two invading races, Elam and the Western Semites, for the possession of the country; and the fact that Hammurabi, Sin-muballit's son, should have emerged victorious, was a justification in full of his father's policy of avoiding any alliance with the south. The Western Semites proved themselves in the end strong enough to overcome the conqueror of Nîsin, and thereby they were left in undisputed possession of the whole of Babylonia.
It is possible, with the help of the date-formulæ and votive inscriptions of the period, to follow in outline the main features of this remarkable struggle. At first Kudur-Mabuk's footing in Sumer was confined to the city of Larsa, though even then he laid claim to the titleAddaof Amurru, a reference to be explained perhaps by the suggested Amorite origin of the Larsa and Nîsin dynasties, and reflecting a claim to the suzerainty of the land from which his northern foes at any rate boasted their origin.[76]Warad-Sin, on ascending the throne, assumed merely the title King of Larsa, but we soon find him becoming the patron of Ur, and building a great fortification-wall in that city.[77]He then extended his authority to the south and east, Eridu, Lagash, and Girsu all falling before his arms or submitting to his suzerainty.[78]During this periodBabylon remained aloof in the north, and Sin-muballit is occupied with cutting canals and fortifying cities, some of which he perhaps occupied for the first time.[79]It was only in his fourteenth year, after Warad-Sin had been succeeded at Larsa by his brother Rîm-Sin, that we have evidence of Babylon taking an active part in opposing Elamite pretensions.