acy of the invader;* a
Susian empire thus absorbed Chaldaea, reducing its states to feudal
provinces, and its princes to humble vassals. Kudur-nakhunta having
departed, the people of Larsa exerted themselves to the utmost to repair
the harm that he had done, and they succeeded but too well, since their
very prosperity was the cause only a short time after of the outburst
of another storm. Siniddinam, perhaps, desired to shake off the Elamite
yoke. Simtishilkhak, one of the successors of Kudur-nakhunta, had
conceded the principality of Yamutbal as a fief to Kudur-mabug, one
of his sons. Kudur-mabug appears to have been a conqueror of no mean
ability, for he claims, in his inscriptions, the possession of the whole
of Syria.**

* The submission of Babylon is evident from the title Adda
Martu, "sovereign of the West," assumed by several of the
Elamite princes (of. p. 65 of the present work): in order to
extend his authority beyond the Euphrates, it was necessary
for the King of Elam to be first of all master of Babylon.
In the early days of Assyriology it was supposed that this
period of Elamite supremacy coincided with the Median
dynasty of Berosus.

** His preamble contains the titles _adda Martu,_ "prince of
Syria;" _adda lamutbal_, "prince of Yamutbal." The word
_adda_ seems properly to mean "lather," and the literal
translation of the full title would probably be "father of
Syria," "_father_ of Yamutbal," whence the secondary
meanings "master, lord, prince," which have been
provisionally accepted by most Assyriologists. Tiele, and
Winckler after him, have suggested that Martu is here
equivalent to Yamutbal, and that it was merely used to
indicate the western part of Elam; Winckler afterwards
rejected this hypothesis, and has come round to the general
opinion.

He obtained a victory over Siniddinam, and having dethroned him, placed
the administration of the kingdom in the hands of his own son Eimsin.
This prince, who was at first a feudatory, afterwards associated in the
government with his father, and finally sole monarch after the
latter's death, married a princess of Chaldaean blood, and by this means
legitimatized his usurpation in the eyes of his subjects. His domain,
which lay on both sides of the Tigris and of the Euphrates, comprised,
besides the principality of Yamutbal, all the towns dependent on Sumer
and