conserve the strength of the city and secure its pre-eminence as a metropolis.  A leisured class had come into existence, with the result that culture was fostered and civilization advanced.  Lagash seems to have been intensely modern in character prior to 2800 B.C., but with the passing of the old order of things there arose grave social problems which never appear to have been seriously dealt with.  All indications of social unrest were, it would appear, severely repressed by the iron-gloved monarchs of Ur-Nina’s dynasty.

The people as a whole groaned under an ever-increasing burden of taxation.  Sumeria was overrun by an army of officials who were notoriously corrupt; they do not appear to have been held in check, as in Egypt, by royal auditors.  “In the domain of Nin-Girsu”, one of Urukagina’s tablets sets forth, “there were tax gatherers down to the sea.”  They not only attended to the needs of the exchequer, but enriched themselves by sheer robbery, while the priests followed their example by doubling their fees and appropriating temple offerings to their own use.  The splendid organization of Lagash was crippled by the dishonesty of those who should have been its main support.

Reforms were necessary and perhaps overdue, but, unfortunately for Lagash, Urukagina’s zeal for the people’s cause amounted to fanaticism.  Instead of gradually readjusting the machinery of government so as to secure equality of treatment without impairing its efficiency as a defensive force in these perilous times, he inaugurated sweeping and revolutionary social changes of far-reaching character regardless of consequences.  Taxes and temple fees were cut down, and the number of officials reduced to a minimum.  Society was thoroughly disorganized.  The army, which was recruited mainly from the leisured and official classes, went practically out of existence, so that traders and agriculturists obtained relief from taxation at the expense of their material security.

Urukagina’s motives were undoubtedly above reproach, and he showed an example to all who occupied positions of trust by living an upright life and denying himself luxuries.  He was disinterestedly pious, and built and restored temples, and acted as the steward of his god with desire to promote the welfare and comfort of all true worshippers.  His laws were similar to those which over two centuries afterwards were codified by Hammurabi, and like that monarch he was professedly the guardian of the weak and the helper of the needy; he sought to establish justice and liberty in the kingdom.  But his social Arcadia vanished like a dream because he failed to recognize that Right must be supported by Might.