Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/46

30 Like so many empires which expand too rapidly, Sargon's crumbled at the first sign of revolt; and he himself was its victim. Arrayed against his successor, Rimush, were even Babylonian princes, among them the ishakku of Kazallu, Asharid, and the king, the ishakku, and the great sukkal or "messenger" of Der. But Rimush, like Sargon, bore the stamp of the conqueror. Quickly he brought all Babylonia under control; then he too looked eastward. In that direction Elam, or rather Awan, was naturally his chief opponent; and Awan had asked and received support from the shakkanakku of the land Zahara and from Barahshi, where Sidgau was still shakkanakku under his king Abalgamash. Valiant as their resistance may have been, the cause of the highlanders was a lost one. Rimush himself proudly claims the victory; the modern excavator proves his claim by unearthing in Babylonia booty from the conquest of Elam and Barahshi: vases at Nippur, once presented to Enlil, and vases and a macehead at Ur, formerly offered to Sin.

Susa fell to the warriors of Rimush; and when Rimush was succeeded by Manishtusu it was in this city that an Elamite, Uba, dedicated a bust of his new suzerain to Narute, a local deity. Cylinder seals in-