Page 143 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

battle Hammurabi had completely stalemated the old king of
Assyria, re-established the balance of power in the north, and set

two buffer states between himself and any attack from that direc­
tion.

To the south was Rim-Sin of Larsa, and his strength lay in
his alliance with Elam. We do not know what envoys of Ham­

murabi climbed in secret the steep trails leading into the Persian
mountains, nor what messages they carried. But in 1785 Hammu­
rabi’s armies moved south against Rim-Sin and captured—and
this time held—the city of Isin. And Elam made no move, for

Elam had troubles of its own. A tribe known as the Kassites,
from the mountains of Luristan to the northwest, was suddenly
attacking with unusual vigor. At about this time the records of
Susa, the Elamite capital, break sharply off.

For the moment Babylon was safe, and already stronger than
it had ever been before, and for the first time in the seven years
since his accession Hammurabi could pause and take stock. For
the next twenty years there was peace in Mesopotamia.

In these twenty years the generation born at the accession
of Hammurabi grows to manhood. They do not remember the
tense days of their early childhood, when their fathers marched

with their young general to war, and the sack of cities. Now the
king, like their fathers, is middle-aged, and for a long while there
have been no battles. But the new generation of young men are
no strangers to marching and training with weapons. The price
of peace is eternal vigilance; every year when the harvest is in,

the muster roll is read out in the town squares and in the villages,
and men are called from pasture and from shop to serve their
king. No shirking is allowed, though exception may be made on

compassionate grounds or to persons in jobs of national impor­
tance. The remainder march out, with their spears and long nar­
row shields, some to relieve the units of the standing army man­
ning the frontier forts, some to reinforce likely points of attack,

or to make carefully calculated demonstrations of strength along
the borders. For the months after the harvest are the traditional
campaigning season, and it does not do to forget it, or to let po­
tential enemies forget it. It is a time of camaraderie and u

stomachs, of long hot marches and quiet warm nights under ie