first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the
latter as the city increased in power. Each ruler was obliged to go in
state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession,
there to do homage to the divine statue. The long lists of early kings
contain semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes.
Towards the end of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the
Christian era, a dynasty arose of which all the members come within the
range of history.

The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing
the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign. Of the ten
kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416
B.C. and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the.
famous and fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the
throne for fifty-five years.

While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt,
separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the
horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. But she had strangely
declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by
invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to
whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the
term Hyksos for this people. Modern scholars have put forward many
conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors.
The monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature. The
problem remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious
as ever.

About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Isræl,
or Isrælites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world's