Page 140 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

city ot Kisn, uie iuiui u± wmen vx«...M Vx
history gave him paramount right to rule the Amorite con­
federacy. And in the reign of his son, Zabum, in the lifetime of
old men still living, the threat of Elam, the great power to the

east, had reached new proportions.
While the ax traders were wandering the green roads of

England, and the beaker folk were pushing deeper and deeper
into Europe along the river valleys, the kings of Elam had been
watching the fluctuating struggle between the rulers of Isin and

of Larsa for the control of Mesopotamia south of the Babylonian
confederacy. They had continually interfered in the war, some­

times cold and sometimes hot, between the two tiny principali­
ties, and finally, in 1836, within the recollection of most people
now alive, the king of Elam, Kudur-Mabug, had captured the

weakened Larsa, cynically assumed the title of Protector of the
Amorites, and installed his son, Warad-Sin, as king there. Isin still

existed, under a succession of weak usurper kings, but its power
was drastically reduced. And even Babylon, farther north, had
lost land to Elam, and had had to tread warily to retain its in­

dependence. Thirty-four years ago, after a reign of twelve years,
Warad-Sin of Larsa had died, and had been succeeded by his

brother Rim-Sin, an energetic monarch who still occupied the
throne of Larsa and held firmly all Mesopotamia south of the
confederacy. That had been the position when Hammurabi’s

father, Sin-muballit, had succeeded to the throne of Babylon
twenty-two years ago.

The inhabitants of Babylon regarded Sin-muballit as one of
their greatest kings. In defiance of the claims of Rim-Sin to the
overlordship of all south Mesopotamia, he had held the con­

federacy intact, and even recovered the territory lost to Elam by
his father. Eight years previously there had been an open clash

with Rim-Sin, and many of the men of Babylon looked back with
pride to their part in the victorious battle against the combined
armies of Larsa and of Ur. Rim-Sin had retired, and had been

forced to bolster his prestige by a move against a weaker foe.
T J f°^owing year he attacked Isin, still nominally independent,

311 rought to an end the two-hundred-year-old dynasty there.

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