oke out against him in
Babylonia, and he was besieged in the city of Akkad, but he "issued
forth and smote" his enemies and utterly destroyed them. Then came his
last campaign against Northern Mesopotamia, from which he returned with
abundant prisoners and spoil.

Sargon's son and successor was Naram-Sin, "the beloved of the Moon-god,"
who continued the conquests of his father. His second campaign was
against the land of Magan, the name under which Midian and the Sinaitic
peninsula were known to the Babylonians. The result of it was the
addition of Magan to his empire and the captivity of its king.

The copper mines of Magan, which are noticed in an early Babylonian
geographical list, made its acquisition coveted alike by Babylonians and
Egyptians. We find the Pharaohs of the third dynasty already
establishing their garrisons and colonies of miners in the province of
Mafkat, as they called it, and slaughtering the Beduin who interfered
with them. The history of Naram-Sin shows that its conquest was equally
an object of the Babylonian monarchs at the very outset of their
history. But whereas the road from Egypt to Sinai was short and easy,
that from Babylonia was long and difficult. Before a Babylonian army
could march into the peninsula it was needful that Syria should be
secure in the rear. The conquest of Palestine, in fact, was necessary
before the copper mines of Sinai could fall into Babylonian hands.

The consolidation of Sargon's empire in the west, therefore, was needful
before the invasion of the country of Magan could take place, and the
invasion accordingly was reserved for Naram-Sin to make. The father had
prepared the way; the son obtained the great prize--the source of the
copper that was used in the ancient world.

The fact that the whole of Syria is described in the annals of Sargon as
"the land of the Amorites," implies, not only that the Amorites were the
ruling population in the country, but also that they must have extended
far to the south. The "land of the Amorites" formed the basis and
starting-point for the expedition of Naram-Sin into Magan; it must,
therefore, have reached to the southern border of Palestine, if not even
farther. The road trodden by his forces would have been the same as that
which was afterwards traversed by Chedor-laomer, and would have led him
through Kadesh-barnea. Is it possible that the Amorites were already in
possession of the mountain-block within which Kadesh stood