The cities of the Euphrates, therefore, could have been sensible of but little change, when the chances of war transferred them from the rule of their native princes to that of an Elamite.  The struggle once over, and the resulting evils repaired as far as practicable, the people of these towns resumed their usual ways, hardly conscious of the presence of their foreign ruler.  The victors, for their part, became assimilated so rapidly with the vanquished, that at the close of a generation or so the conquering dynasty was regarded legitimate and national one, loyally attached to the traditions and religion of its adopted country.  In the year 2285 B.C., towards the close of the reign of Nurramman, or in the earlier part of that of Siniddinam, a King of Elam, by name Kudur-nakhunta, triumphantly marched through Chaldaea from end to end, devastating the country and sparing neither town nor temple:  Uruk lost its statue of Nana, which was carried off as a trophy and placed in the sanctuary of Susa.  The inhabitants long mourned the detention of their goddess, and a hymn of lamentation, probably composed for the occasion by one of their priests, kept the remembrance of the disaster fresh in their memories.  “Until when, oh lady, shall the impious enemy ravage the country!—­In thy queen-city, Uruk, the destruction is accomplished,—­in Eulbar, the temple of thy oracle, blood has flowed like water,—­upon the whole of thy lands has he poured out flame, and it is spread abroad like smoke.—­Oh, lady, verily it is hard for me to bend under the yoke of misfortune!—?  Oh, lady, thou hast wrapped me about, thou hast plunged me, in sorrow!—­The impious mighty one has broken me in pieces like a reed,—­and I know not what to resolve, I trust not in myself,—­like a bed of reeds I sigh day and night!—­I, thy servant, I bow myself before thee!” It would appear that the whole of Chaldaea, including Babylon itself, was forced to acknowledge the supremacy 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.**