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 Chaldæan 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 ziggurât 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 Chaldæan 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, was more fortunate. Eimsin vainly