pon those of the kings
of Uru, but the frontier was constantly shifting, so that at one time an
important city such as Nippur belonged to them, while at another it fell
under the dominion of the southern provinces. Perpetual war was waged
in the narrow borderland which separated the two rival states, resulting
apparently in the balance of power being kept tolerably equal between
them under the immediate successors of Sumuabim* --the obscure Sumulailu,
Zabum, the usurper Immeru, Abilsin and Sinmuballit--until the reign of
Khammurabi (the son of Sinmuballit), who finally made it incline to
his side.** The struggle in which he was engaged, and which, after many
vicissitudes, he brought to a successful issue, was the more decisive,
since he had to contend against a skilful and energetic adversary who
had considerable forces at his disposal. Birnsin*** was, in reality, of
Elamite race, and as he held the province of Yamutbal in appanage, he
was enabled to muster, in addition to his Chaldaean battalions, the army
of foreigners who had conquered the maritime regions at the mouth of the
Tigris and the Euphrates.

* None of these facts are as yet historically proved: we
may, however, conjecture with some probability what was the
general state of things, when we remember that the first
kings of Babylon were contemporaries of the last independent
sovereigns of Southern Chaldaea.

** The name of this prince has been read in several ways--
Hammurabi, Khammurabi, by the earlier Assyriologists,
subsequently Hammuragash, Khammuragash, as being of Elamite
or Cossoan extraction: the reading Khammurabi is at present
the prevailing one. The bilingual list published by Pinches
makes Khammurabi an equivalent of the Semitic names Kimta-
rapashtum. Hence Halevy concluded that Khammurabi was a
series of ideograms, and that Kimtarapashtum was the true
reading of the name; his proposal, partially admitted by
Hommel, furnishes us with a mixed reading of Khammurapaltu,
Amraphel. [Hommel is now convinced of the identity of the
Amraphel of _Gen._ xiv. I with Khammurabi.--Te.] Sayce,
moreover, adopts the reading Khammurabi, and assigns to him
an Arabian origin. The part played by this prince was
pointed out at an early date by Menant. Recent discoveries
have shown the important share which he had in developing
the Chaldaean empire, and have