* 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 Accad—­Uru, Larsa, Uruk, and Nippur, He acquitted himself as a good sovereign in the sight of gods and men:  he repaired the brickwork in the temple of Nannar at Uru; he embellished the temple of Shamash at Larsa, and caused two statues of copper to be cast in honour of the god; he also rebuilt Lagash and Grirsu.  The city of Uruk had been left a heap of ruins after the withdrawal of Kudur-nakhunta:  he set about the work of restoration, constructed a sanctuary to Papsukal, raised the ziggurat of Nana, and consecrated to the goddess an entire set of temple furniture to replace that carried off by the Elamites.  He won the adhesion of the priests by piously augmenting their revenues, and throughout his reign displayed remarkable energy.  Documents exist which attribute to him the reduction of Durilu, on the borders of Elam and the Chaldaean states; others contain discreet allusions to a perverse enemy who disturbed his peace in the north, and whom he successfully repulsed.  He drove Sinmuballit out of Ishin, and this victory so forcibly impressed his contemporaries, that they made it the starting-point of a new semi-official era; twenty-eight years after the event, private contracts still continued to be dated by reference to the taking of Ishin.  Sinmuballit’s son, Khammurabi,