[CHAPTER VII]
EARLY RULERS OF SUMER AND KINGS OF KISH
The sack and destruction of Lagash, which has been described in the preceding chapter, closes an epoch, not only in the fortunes of that city, but also in the history of the lands of Sumer and Akkad. When following the struggles of the early city-states, we have hitherto been able to arrange our material in strict chronological order by the help of a nearly unbroken succession of rulers, whose inscriptions have been recovered during the French excavations at Tello. These have enabled us to reconstruct the history of Lagash herself in some detail, and from the references they furnish to other great cities it has been possible to estimate the influence she exerted from time to time among her neighbours. It is true that the records, from which our information is derived, were drawn up by the rulers of Lagash whose deeds they chronicle, and are naturally far from being impartial authorities. A victory may sometimes have been claimed, when the facts may not have fully justified it; and to this extent we have been forced to view the history of Sumer and of Akkad from the standpoint of a single city. Had the sites of other cities yielded as rich a harvest as Tello, it is probable that other states would be found to have played no less important parts. But in any case it may be regarded as certain that for a time at least Lagash enjoyed the hegemony which it was the ambition of every state of Sumer and Akkad to possess. This leading position had been definitely secured to her by the conquests of Eannatum, and, although under his successors her influence may have diminished, it must have still remained considerable until the victory of Umma put an end to it.
Lugal-zaggisi, the conqueror of Lagash, is mentioned by name in the document from which our knowledge of the catastrophe is derived. The unknown writer of that composition, as we have already seen, assigns to him the title "patesi of Umma," and, had we no other information concerning him, we might perhaps have concluded that his success against the ancient rival of his own city was merely an isolated achievement. In the long-continued struggle between these neighbouring states Umma had finally proved victorious, and the results of this victory might have been regarded as of little more than local importance.[1] But, even before the discovery of the record, Lugal-zaggisi's name was known as that of a great conqueror, and it will be seen that his defeat of Urukagina was only one step in a career of conquest, in the course of which he subdued the whole of Sumer and consolidated a dominion as great as, if not greater than, any hitherto acquired by the ruler of a city-state. The inscription from which we obtain our knowledge of Lugal-zaggisi's career is engraved upon a number of fragments of vases, made of white calcite stalagmite, which were discovered at Nippur during the excavations carried out by the University of Pennsylvania. All the vases were broken into small pieces, but, as each had been engraved with the same inscription, it was found possible, by piecing the fragments together, to reconstruct a more or less complete copy of the text.[2] From this we learn that Lugal-zaggisi had dedicated the vases to Enlil, and had deposited them as votive offerings in the great temple of E-kur.
Fortunately, Lugal-zaggisi prefaces his record of their dedication with a long list of his own titles and achievements, which make up the greater part of the inscription. From this portion of the text we gather considerable information with regard to the cities under his control, and the limits of the empire to which he laid claim at the time the record was drawn up. The text opens with an enumeration of the royal titles, in which Lugal-zaggisi is described as "King of Erech, king of the land, priest of Ana, prophet of Nidaba; the son of Ukush, patesi of Umma, the prophet of Nidaba; he who was favourably regarded by Ana, the king of the lands; the great patesi of Enlil; endowed with understanding by Enki; whose name was spoken by Babbar (the Sun-god); the chief minister of Enzu (the Moon-god); the representative of Babbar; the patron of Ninni; the son of Nidaba, who was nourished with holy milk by Ninkharsag; the servant of the god Mes, who is the priest of Erech; the pupil of Ninabukhadu, the mistress of Erech; the great minister of the gods."[3] Lugal-zaggisi then goes on to state in general terms the limits of his dominion. "When the god Enlil, the king of the lands," he says, "had bestowed upon Lugal-zaggisi the kingdom of the land, and had granted him success in the eyes of the land, and when his might had cast the lands down, and he had conquered them from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the Lower Sea (over) the Euphrates and the Tigris[4] unto the Upper Sea. From the rising of the sun unto the setting of the same has Enlil granted him dominion...."[5] It is to Enlil, the chief of the gods, that, in accordance with the practice of the period, he ascribes the dominion which has been granted him to administer.
The phrases in which Lugal-zaggisi defines the limits of his empire are sufficiently striking, and it will be necessary to enquire into their exact significance. But before doing so it will be well to continue quoting from the inscription, which proceeds to describe the benefits which the king has conferred upon different cities of his realm. Referring to the peace and prosperity which characterized Lugal-zaggisi's reign, the record states that "he caused the lands to dwell in security, he watered the land with waters of joy. In the shrines of Sumer did they set him up to be the patesi of the lands, and in Erech (they appointed him) to be chief priest. At that time he made Erech bright with joy; like a bull he raised the head of Ur to heaven; Larsa, the beloved city of the Sun-god, he watered with waters of joy; Umraa, the beloved city of the god ..., he raised to exalted power; as a ewe that ... her lamb, has he made Ninni-esh resplendent; the summit of Kianki has he raised to heaven."[6] Then follows the votive portion of the text and the prayer of dedication, with which for the moment we have no concern.
From the extracts which have been quoted from Lugal-zaggisi's inscription, it will have been seen that he claims a jurisdiction far wider than might have been expected to belong to a patesi of Umma. But the text itself explains the apparent discrepancy, and shows that, while Lugal-zaggisi's inheritance was a patesiate, he won by his own exertions the empire over which he subsequently ruled. It will be noticed that while he claims for himself the titles "King of Erech" and "king of the land," i.e. of Sumer, he ascribes to his father Ukush only the title "patesi of Umma." It is therefore clear that his father's authority did not reach beyond the limits of his native city, and we may conclude that such was the extent of the patesiate of Umma when Lugal-zaggisi himself came to the throne. The later titles, which he assumes on the vases found at Nippur, prove that at the time they were inscribed he had already established his authority throughout Sumer and had removed his seat of government from Umma to Erech. That the latter city had become his capital is clear from the precedence which he gives to the designation "King of Erech" over his other titles of honour; and, in accordance with this change of residence, he details the new relations into which he has entered with the deities of that city. Thus he is the servant of Mes and the pupil of Ninabukhadu, the divine priest and the mistress of Erech; and in a special sense he has become the patron of Ninni, the chief seat of whose worship was at Erech, in her great temple E-anna. Ana, too, the father of the gods, had his temple in Erech, and so Lugal-zaggisi naturally became his priest and enjoyed his special favour. It was probably in consequence of Ana's close connection with his new capital that Lugal-zaggisi ascribes to him the title "king of the lands," which by right belonged only to Enlil of Nippur; and we may note that in the prayer of dedication on the vases it is with Ana that Enlil is besought to intercede on behalf of the king.[7]
Although Lugal-zaggisi had changed his capital and no longer continued to use his father's title as patesi of Umma, he naturally did not neglect his native city; moreover, he retained the title "prophet of Nidaba," and thereby continued to claim the protection of the city-goddess, who, before his recent victories, had been his patroness and that of his father before him. He even emphasized his dependence upon her by styling himself her son, and in another passage he boasts that he had raised the city of Umma to power. High in his favour also stood Ur, the city of the Moon-god, and Larsa, the city of the Sun-god; and the less-known cities of Ninni-esh and Kianki are also selected for mention as having been specially favoured by him. At first sight it is not clear on what principle the names of these cities are selected from among all those in the land of Sumer, which were presumably within the circle of his authority. That Erech, Ur, and Larsa should be referred to is natural enough, for they were close to one another, and would thus form the centre and nucleus of his dominion; and the king would naturally devote himself to improving their canalization and beautifying them by the erection of new buildings. It is not improbable that we may explain the mention of Ninni-esh and Kianki on the same principle: they probably stood in the immediate neighbourhood of the three greater cities, or of Umma, and thus participated in the benefits which they enjoyed.
In any case, the absence of a city's name from Lugal-zaggisi's list is not necessarily to be taken as implying that it was not included within the limits of his dominion. This is proved by the fact that Lagash is not referred to, although it was probably one of his earliest conquests. In fact, the king's object in composing the earlier part of his inscription was not to give an accurate analysis of the extent and condition of his empire, but merely to enumerate the cities he had particularly favoured, and to record the names of those deities with whom he stood in particularly close relations. For instance, we may conclude that although the city of Eridu is not referred to by name, it nevertheless formed part of Lugal-zaggisi's kingdom. There is thus every reason to regard his dominion as having been co-extensive with the whole of Sumer, and his title "king of the land" was probably based on a confederation of all the Sumerian city-states.