proto-type of all those
great Oriental conquerors who from time to time have built up vast
empires in Asia out of heterogeneous materials, which have in a longer
or a shorter space successively crumbled to decay. At a time when the
kings of Egypt had never ventured beyond their borders, unless it were
for a foray in Ethiopia, and when in Asia no monarch had held dominion
over more than a few petty tribes, and a few hundred miles of territory,
he conceived the magnificent notion of binding into one the manifold
nations inhabiting the vast tract which lies between the Zagros
mountain-range and the Mediterranean. Lord by inheritance (as we may
presume) of Eliun and Chaldaea or Babylonia, he was not content with
these ample tracts, but, coveting more, proceeded boldly on a career of
conquest up the Euphrates valley, and through Syria, into Palestine.
Successful here, he governed for twelve years dominions extending near a
thousand miles from east to west, and from north to south probably not
much short of five hundred. It was true that he was not able to hold
this large extent of territory; but the attempt and the success
temporarily attending it are memorable circumstances, and were probably
long held in remembrance through Western Asia, where they served as a
stimulus and incentive to the ambition of later monarchs.

These, then, are the great men of the Chaldaean empire. Its extent, as
we have seen, varied greatly at different periods. Under the kings of
the first dynasty--to which Urukh and Ilgi belonged--it was probably
confined to the alluvium, which seems then to have been not more than 300
miles in length along the course of the rivers, and which is about 70 or
80 miles in breadth from the Tigris to the Arabian desert. In the course
of the second dynasty it received a vast increase, being carried in one
direction to the Elamitic mountains, and in another to the Mediterranean,
by the conquest of Kudur-Nakhunta and Chedor-laomer. On the defeat of
the latter prince it again contracted, though to what extent we have no
means of determining. It is probable that Elam or Susiana, and not
unlikely that the Euphrates valley, for a considerable distance above
Hit, formed parts of the Chaldaean Empire after the loss of Syria and
Palestine. Assyria occupied a similar position, at any rate from the
time of Ismi-dagon, whose son built a temple at Kileh-Sherghat or Asshur.
There is reason to think that the subjection of As