Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/221

 BABYLONIA

181

BABYLONIA

lis club foes whose heads are protruding out of the Dpening of a bag in which they are bound.

That, notnitlistanding these scenes of bloodshed, it was an age of art and culture can be evidently shown by such finds as that of a superb silver vase af Entemena, Eannatum's son and successor, and, as crown-prince, general of his army. After Ean- natum II the history of Shirpurla is a blank, until we find the name of Lugal Ushumgal, when, however, the city has for a time lost its independence, for this ruler was the vassal of Sargon I of Akkad. about 3S00 B. c.

Yet. some six centuries afterwards, when the diiTiasty of Akkad had ceased to be, the patesis. or high-priests, of Shirpurla were stiU men of reno«Ti. A long in- scription on the back of a statue tells us of the vast building achievements of Ur-Bau about the year 3200; and the name of his son and successor, Nara- maghani. About two centuries later we find iGudea, one of the most famous rulers the city ever possessed. Exca^■ations at Tello have laid bare the colossal walls of his great palace and have shown us how, both by land and sea, he brought his materials from vast distances, while his architecture and sculpture show perfect art and refinement, and we incidentally learn that he conquered the district of Anslian in Elam. After Gudea, we are acquainted with the names of four more rulers of Sliirpurla, but in these subsequent reigns the city seems to have quickly sunk into po- litical insignificance. Another Sumerian djiiasty was that of Erech, or Gishban. About 4000 B. c. a cer- tain Lugal Zaggisi, son of the Patesi of Gishban, who became King of Erech, proudly styled himself King of the World, as Enshagkuslianna and Alusharshid had done, claimed to rule from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and praises the supreme god En- lil, or Bel, of Nippur, who "granted him the do- minion of all from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof and caused the countries to dwell in peace". Yet to us it seems but a rushlight of glorj'; for after his son Lugal-Kisalsi the Kingdom of Erech disap- pears in the night of the past. The same may be said of the djTiasty of Agade. Ittibel's .son, Sargon I, suddenly stands before us as a giant figure in history about 3S0O b. c. He was a monarch proud of his race and language, for his inscriptions were in his Semitic mother-tongue, not in the Sumerian, like those of pre- vious kings. He is rightly called the first founder of a Semitic empire. Under him flourished Semitic language, literature, and art, especially architecture. He established his dominion in Susa, the capital of Elam, subdued SjTia and Palestine in three cam- paigns, set up an image of himself on the SjTian coast, as a monument of his triumphs, and welded his con- quests into one empire. Naram-Sin, his son, even extended his father's conquests, invading the Sinai

Peninsula and, apparently, Cyprus, where a seal- cylinder was found on which he receives homage as a god. On inscriptions of that date first occurs men- tion of the city of God's Gate, or Babylon (BSb-ilu sometimes B&b-ilani, whence the Greek 'Ba^vKuiv), then WTitten ideographically Kd-Dmigir.

After Bingani, Naram-Sin's son, Semitic successes were temporarily eclipsed; Egj'pt occupied Sinai, Elam became again independent, and in Babylonia itself the Sumerian element reasserted itself. A\'e find a dynasty of Ur in prominence. This city seems at two different periods to have exercised the hegemony over the Euphrates ^" alley or part of it. First under Urgur and Dungi I, about 3400 B. c. This Urgur assumed the title of Iving of Sumer and Akkad, thus making the first attempt to unite North and South Babylonia into a political unit, and inaugurating a royal style which was borne perhaps longer than the title of any other dignity since the world was made. Ur predominates, for the second time, about 2800 B. c, under Dungi II, Gungunu, Bur-Sin. Gimil-Sin, and Ine Sin, whose buildings and fortifications are found in many cities of Babylonia. The history of Ur is as yet so obscure that some scholars (Thureau- Dangin, Hilprecht, Bezold) accept but two dynasties, others (Rogers) three, others (Hugo Radau) four. The supremacy of Ur is followed, about 2500 b. c, by that of (N) Isin, apparently an unimportant city, as its rulers style themseh'es Shepherds, or Gracious Lords, of Isin, and place this title after that of King of L'r, Eridu, Erech, and Nippin. Six rulers of Isin are known: Ishbigarra, Libit-Ishtar, Bur-Sin II, Ur- Ninib, Ishme-Dagan, and Enannatum. The last of the city-kingdoms was that of Larsa, about 2300 B. c, with its sovereigns Siniddinam Nur-Adad. Che- dornanchundi, Chedorlaomer, Chedormabug, and Eri- Aku. The composition of these royal names with Chedor, the Elamite Kudur, sufficiently shows that they did not belong to a native djTiasty, whether Sumerian or Semitic. One of the earliest Elamite in- vaders of Babylonia was Rim-Amun, who obtained such a foothold on Babylonian soil that the year 'of his reign was used to date contract tablets, a sure sign that he was at least king de jacto. Chedornan- chundi invaded Babylonia about the year 2285, reached Erech, plundered its temples, and captured the city-goddess; but whether he established a per- manent rule, remains doubtful. Somewhat later Che- dorlaomer {Kudur-Laghamar," Servant of Laghamar", an Elamite deity), known to us from the Bible, seems to have been more successful. Not only does he ap- pear as overlord of Babylonia, but he carried his con- quest as far west as Palestine. Chedormabug was originally Prince of Emutbal, or western Elam, but obtained dominion over Babylonia and rebuilt the temple at L'r. His son Rim-Sin, or Eri-Aku, con- sidered himself so well established on Babjdonian territory that he affected the ancient titles, Exalter of L'r, King of Larsa, King of Sumer and Akkad. Yet he was the least of the city-kings, and a new- order of things began with the rise of Babylon.

The First Empire. — The djmasty which laid the foundation of Babylon's greatness is sometimes called the Arabian. It certainly was West-Semitic and al- most certainly Amorite. The Babylonians called it the djmasty of Babylon, for, though foreign in origin, it may have had its actual home in that city, which it gratefully and proudly remembered. It lasted for 296 years and .saw the greatest glory of the old empire and perhaps the Golden Age of the Semitic race in the ancient world. The names of its monarchs are: Sumu-abi (15 vears), Sumu-la-ilu (35), Zabin (14), Apil-Sin (18), Sin-muballit (30); Hammurabi (35), Sanisu-iluna (35), Abishua (25), Ammi-titana (25), Ammizaduga (22), Samsu-titana (31). Lender the first five kmgs Babylon was still only the mightiest