labour in ancient Babylonia.  This is clear from the large number of contracts relating to hire which have come down to us....  As a rule, the man was hired for the harvest and was free directly after.  But there are many examples in which the term of service was different—­one month, half a year, or a whole year....  Harvest labour was probably far dearer than any other, because of its importance, the skill and exertion demanded, and the fact that so many were seeking for it at once.”  When a farm worker was engaged he received a shekel for “earnest money” or arles, and was penalized for non-appearance or late arrival.[281]

So great was the political upheaval caused by Rim-Sin and his allies and imitators in southern Babylonia, that it was not until the seventeenth year of his reign that Samsu-iluna had recaptured Erech and Ur and restored their walls.  Among other cities which had to be chastised was ancient Akkad, where a rival monarch endeavoured to establish himself.  Several years were afterwards spent in building new fortifications, setting up memorials in temples, and cutting and clearing canals.  On more than one occasion during the latter part of his reign he had to deal with aggressive bands of Amorites.

The greatest danger to the Empire, however, was threatened by a new kingdom which had been formed in Bit-Jakin, a part of Sealand which was afterwards controlled by the mysterious Chaldeans.  Here may have collected evicted and rebel bands of Elamites and Sumerians and various “gentlemen of fortune” who were opposed to the Hammurabi regime.  After the fall of Rim-Sin it became powerful under a king called Ilu-ma-ilu.  Samsu-iluna conducted at least two campaigns against his rival, but without much success.  Indeed, he was in the end compelled to retreat with considerable loss owing to the difficult character of that marshy country.

Abeshu, the next Babylonian king, endeavoured to shatter the cause of the Sealanders, and made it possible for himself to strike at them by damming up the Tigris canal.  He achieved a victory, but the wily Ilu-ma-ilu eluded him, and after a reign of sixty years was succeeded by his son, Kiannib.  The Sealand Dynasty, of which little is known, lasted for over three and a half centuries, and certain of its later monarchs were able to extend their sway over part of Babylonia, but its power was strictly circumscribed so long as Hammurabi’s descendants held sway.

During Abeshu’s reign of twenty-eight years, of which but scanty records survive, he appears to have proved an able statesman and general.  He founded a new city called Lukhaia, and appears to have repulsed a Kassite raid.