Page 152 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

[1790-1720 B*c‘] The Lawgiver 121

gods was on its way down to the plains. For Hammurabi, the
great king, was dead, and the lush land lay open to whoever
could take it.
With all the speed that horses could give him (though ham­
pered by the new obstacle of wide rivers and a network of irriga­
tion canals) Gandash threw his forces at Babylon. And Samsu-
iluna called his veterans to arms, this time to defend their
homes. Gandash had underestimated the new king and his expe­
rienced troops. Between the waters of Euphrates and Tigris the
seasoned footmen of Babylonia met and defeated the charioteers
from the northwest. The first serious clash between Indo-
European and Semite, between horse and foot, ended in favor
of the latter.
But it was only a partial victory. Gandash retired behind
the Tigris, but he stayed in the plains. Eshnunna and the Diyala
valley became a Kassite kingdom. Samsu-iluna must almost have
expected what happened next. Within weeks word came out of
Assyria, to the north beyond the Kassite bridgehead, of revolting
cities and slaughtered garrisons and of a new king proclaimed in
the old capital of Assur. And then silence. Samsu-iluna prepared
for revolt in the south.
Nevertheless, four years went by before it came, so well had
Hammurabi done his work, four years of watchful garrisons and
apprehensive governors in Sumer, and of border clashes between
Kassite and Babylonian charioteers in the north. For Babylon was
now beginning to develop for herself the new arm of chariotry.
In 1742, eight years after Hammurabi’s death, a pretender
to the throne of Larsa arose, calling himself Rim-Sin like the last
king, and rallied Larsa, Uruk, and Isin to his side. Samsu-iluna
was prepared, but he had to keep the bulk of his army facing
the Kassites, and could spare little more than the local garrisons
to cope with the revolt in Sumer. Even so, he succeeded, after
two years of guerilla warfare in the swamps and reed jungles
of the south, in capturing and executing the rebel leader. Once
more there was an uneasy peace.
The position in the north stabilized as the years went by. By
the time the Kassites had been ten years in the country, the per­
manence of their occupation of the eastern plains was accepted