s association with Babylon, therefore, must be viewed in the
same light as the association of Sin, the moon-god, with the city of Ur,
and the association of Shamash, the sun-god, with Larsa and Sippar. Just
as in the latter places, other cults besides that of the patron deity
prevailed, so in Babylon it was merely the prominence which, for some
reason, the worship of the sun-god acquired, that led to the closer
identification of this particular deity with the city, until he became
viewed as the god _par excellence_ of the city, and the city itself as
his favorite residence. As long as Larsa and Sippar retained a
prominence overshadowing that of Babylon, the sun cult at the latter
place could attract but little attention. Only as Babylon began to
rival, and finally to supersede, other centers of sun-worship, could
Marduk be brought into the front rank of prevailing cults. It may appear
strange, in view of this original character of Marduk, that neither in
the inscriptions of Hammurabi, nor in those of his successors, is there
any direct reference to his qualities as a solar deity. However, in the
ideographs composing his name, which are to be interpreted as 'child of
the day,'[121] and in the zodiacal system, as perfected by the
Babylonian scholars, there lurk traces of the god's solar origin, and
beyond this, perhaps, in certain set phrases, surviving in prayers
addressed to him. The explanation for this absence of solar traits is to
be sought in the peculiar political conditions that resulted in bringing
Marduk into such prominence. Hammurabi was preeminently a conquering
king. He waged war on all sides, and carried on his campaigns for many
years. When he finally succeeded in bringing both North and South
Babylonia under his sway, it still required constant watching to keep
his empire together. His patron god, therefore, the protector of the
city, whose jurisdiction was thus spread over a larger extent of
territory than that of any other deity, must have appeared to Hammurabi
and his followers, as well as to those vanquished by him, essentially as
a warrior. It is he who hands over to kings the land and its
inhabitants. The fact that he was a solar deity would become obscured by
the side of the more potent fact that, as god of the city of Babylon,
his sway was supreme. He therefore became Marduk, the 'great lord.' The
epithets bestowed upon him naturally emphasized the manner in which he
manifested himself, and these ep