rebellions,—­who destroys the stubborn like images of clay,—­who overcomes the obstacles of inaccessible mountains.”  The majority of these expeditions were, no doubt, consequent on the victory which destroyed the power of Kimsin.  It would not have sufficed merely to drive back the Elamites beyond the Tigris; it was necessary to strike a blow within their own territory to avoid a recurrence of hostilities, which might have endangered the still recent work of conquest.  Here, again, Khammurabi seems to have met with his habitual success.

[Illustration:  057.jpg HEAD OF A SCEPTRE IN COPPER, BEARING THE NAME OF KHAM-MURABI]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a rapid sketch made at the
     British Museum.

Ashnunak was a border district, and shared the fate of all the provinces on the eastern bank of the Tigris, being held sometimes by Elam and sometimes by Chaldaea; properly speaking, it was a country of Semitic speech, and was governed by viceroys owning allegiance, now to Babylon, now to Susa.* Khammurabi seized this province, and permanently secured its frontier by building along the river a line of fortresses surrounded by earthworks.  Following the example of his predecessors, he set himself to restore and enrich the temples.

* Pognon discovered inscriptions of four of the vicegerents of Ashnunak, which he assigns, with some hesitation, to the time of Khammurabi, rather than to that of the kings of Telloh.  Three of these names are Semitic, the fourth Sumerian; the language of the inscriptions bears a resemblance to the Semitic dialect of Chaldaea.

The house of Zamama and Ninni, at Kish, was out of repair, and the ziggurat threatened to fall; he pulled it down and rebuilt it, carrying it to such a height that its summit “reached the heavens.”  Merodach had delegated to him the government of the faithful, and had raised him to the rank of supreme ruler over the whole of Chaldaea.  At Babylon, close to the great lake which served as a reservoir for the overflow of the Euphrates, the king restored the sanctuary of Esagilla, the dimensions of which did not appear to him to be proportionate to the growing importance of the city.  “He completed this divine dwelling with great joy and delight, he raised the summit to the firmament,” and then enthroned Merodach and his spouse, Zarpanit, within it, amid great festivities.  He provided for the ever-recurring requirements of the national religion by frequent gifts; the tradition has come down to us of the granary for wheat which he built at Babylon, the sight of which alone rejoiced the heart of the god.  While surrounding Sippar with a great wall and a fosse, to protect its earthly inhabitants, he did not forget Shamash and Malkatu, the celestial patrons of the town.  He enlarged in their honour the mysterious Ebarra, the sacred seat of their worship, and that which no king from the earliest times had known how to build for his divine master, that did he generously for Shamash his master.  He restored Ezida, the eternal dwelling of Merodach, at Borsippa; Eturka-lamma, the temple of Anu, Ninni, and Nana, the suzerains of Kish; and also Ezikalamma, the house of the goddess Ninna, in the village of Zarilab.  In the southern provinces, but recently added to the crown,—­at Larsa, Uruk, and Uru,—­he displayed similar activity.