s own system of government, the need for close and frequent
communication between them was not pressing, but this became apparent
as soon as they were welded together and formed parts of an extended
empire. Thus in the time of Sargon of Agade, about 3800 B.C., an
extensive system of royal convoys was established between the principal
cities. At Telloh the late M. de Sarzec came across numbers of lumps of
clay bearing the seal impressions of Sargon and of his son Naram-Sin,
which had been used as seals and labels upon packages sent from Agade
to Shirpurla. In the time of Dungi, King of Ur, there was a constant
interchange of officials between the various cities of Babylonia and
Elam, and during the more recent diggings at Telloh there have been
found vouchers for the supply of food for their sustenance when stopping
at Shirpurla in the course of their journeys. In the case of Hammurabi
we have recovered some of the actual letters sent by the king himself to
Sin-idinnam, his local governor in the city of Larsam, and from them we
gain considerable insight into the principles which guided him in the
administration of his empire.

The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were
only three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the
person of the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the
tablet was written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having
been first powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the
envelope. The name of the person for whom the letter was intended was
written on the outside of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were
baked hard to ensure that they should not be broken on their travels.
The recipient of the letter, on its being delivered to him, broke the
outer envelope by tapping it sharply, and it then fell away in pieces,
leaving the letter and its message exposed. The envelopes were very
similar to those in which the contract tablets of the period were
enclosed, of which illustrations have already been given, their only
difference being that the text of the tablet was not repeated on the
envelope, as was the case with the former class of documents.

The royal letters that have been recovered throw little light on
military affairs and the prosecution of campaigns, for, being addressed
to