Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/59



HE peoples of Gutium who overwhelmed Babylonia in the twenty-fifth century appear indeed to have been barbarians. Later authors hurl fierce invectives against them, and apparently these were not altogether unwarranted. It was said that they antagonized the gods, carried off the sovereignty of Sumer to the mountains, and established enmity and wickedness in the land. From the viewpoint of the Babylonian, schooled in the virtues of law and order, no greater accusation could be brought against any people than that they lacked the firm hand of a rightful sovereign. Yet it was said of the Guti that they had no ruler before they entered the lowlands. We may attribute this state-