call Sumerians, who came, it is said, from some northern country, and
brought with them a curious system of writing which, adopted by ten
different nations, has preserved for us all that we know in regard to
the majority of the empires which rose and fell in Western Asia before
the Persian conquest. The cities of these Semites and Sumerians were
divided into two groups, one in the south, near the sea, the other more
to the north, where the Euphrates and the Tigris are separated by a
narrow strip of land. The southern group consisted of seven, Eridu lying
nearest the coast. Uru was the most important. Lagash was to the north
of Eridu. The northern group consisted of Nipur, "the incomparable,"
Borsip, Babylon (gate of the god and residence of life, the only
metropolis of the Euphrates region of which posterity never lost
reminiscence), Kishu, Kuta, Agade, and, lastly, the two Sipparas, that
of Shamash, and that of Annuit.

The earliest Chaldæan civilisation was confined almost to the banks of
the lower Euphrates; except at the northern boundary it did not reach
the Tigris and did not cross the river. Separated from the rest of the
world, on the east by the vast marshes bordering on the river, on the
north by the Mesopotamian table-land, on the west by the Arabian desert,
it was able to develop its civilisation as Egypt had done, in an
isolated area, and to follow out its destiny in peace.

According to Ferossasi the first king was Aloros of Babylon. He was
chosen by the god Oannes, and reigned supernaturally for ten sari, or
36,000 years, each saros being 3,600 years. Nine kings follow, each in
this mythical record reigning an enormous period. Then took place the
great deluge, 691,000 years after the creation, in consequence of the
wickedness of men, who neglected the worship of the gods, and excited
their wrath. Shamashnapishtim, king at this time in Shurippak, was saved