The remaining group of Eannatum's conquests comprise the victories he achieved over Az, Mishime, and Arua. The first of these places was a city ruled by a patesi, whom Eannatum slew when he captured and destroyed it. It was formerly regarded as situated in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, but the grounds on which this view was held have proved inadequate.[40] Moreover, Eannatum's references to Mishime and Arua do not assist us much in determining their positions, for he merely states that he destroyed and annihilated them. In a passage upon the Stele of the Vultures, however, a reference to the land of Sumer follows closely upon a record of the conquest of Arua,[41] which perhaps is an indication that all three places should be sought in Southern Babylonia. We are thus without data for settling definitely the region in which this group of cities lay, and we are equally without information as to the period of his reign in which Eannatum captured or destroyed them. The fact that they are mentioned last in the lists is no proof that they were among his most recent conquests; it may merely be due to their relatively small importance. In support of this suggestion we may note that in the longest of his foundation-inscriptions Eannatum refers to them once only, while his successes against Elam and the northern cities are celebrated in two or three separate passages.
From the preceding discussion of the campaigns of Eannatum it will have been seen that during his reign a considerable expansion took place in the power and influence of Lagash. From being a city-state with her influence restricted to her own territory, she became head of a confederation of the great Sumerian cities, she successfully disputed with the northern cities the hegemony in Babylonia, and she put a check upon the encroachments of Elam, the hereditary foe of Sumer and Akkad alike. According to the view of Eannatum's conquests which has been put forward, the first expansion of the city's influence took place southwards. The cities of Ur, Erech, Larsa, Kesh, and probably Eridu, had already become her vassal states, before Kish and Opis attempted to curtail her growing power; and in the war which followed it is probable that we may see a struggle between the combined forces of Sumer on the one hand, and those of Akkad on the other. One of the most important episodes in this conflict was the war with Umma, since the raid by the men of that city into the territory of Lagash furnished the occasion for the outbreak of hostilities. The issue of the conflict placed Lagash in the position of the leading city in Babylonia. The fact that from this time forward Eannatum did not permanently adopt the title of "king" in his inscriptions, may perhaps be traced to his preference for the religious title of "patesi," which emphasized his dependence upon his own city-god Ningirsu.
The military character of Eannatum is reflected in his inscriptions, which in this respect form a striking contrast to those of his grandfather, Ur-Ninâ. While the earlier king's records are confined entirely to lists of temples and other buildings, which he erected or restored in Lagash and its neighbourhood, the texts of Eannatum are devoted almost exclusively to his wars. From a few scattered passages, however, we gather that he did not entirely neglect the task of adding to and beautifying the temples in his capital. Thus he built a temple for the goddess Gatumdug, and added to other buildings which were already standing in Ur-Ninâ's time. But his energies in this direction were mainly devoted to repairing the fortifications of Lagash, and to putting the city in a complete state of defence. Thus he boasts that he built the wall of Lagash and made it strong. Since Ur-Ninâ's time, when the city-wall had been thoroughly repaired, it is probable that the defences of the city had been weakened, for Eannatum also records that he restored Girsu, one of the quarters of the city, which we may suppose had suffered on the same occasion, and had been allowed to remain since then in a partly ruined condition. In honour of the goddess Ninâ he also records that he rebuilt, or perhaps largely increased, the quarter of the city which was named after her, and he constructed a wall for the special protection of Uru-azagga, another quarter of Lagash. In fact, the political expansion, which took place at this period in the power of Lagash, was accompanied by an equally striking increase in the size and defences of the city itself.
During the reign of Eannatum it is clear that the people of Lagash enjoyed a considerable measure of prosperity, for, although they were obliged to furnish men for their patesi's army, the state acquired considerable wealth from the sack of conquered cities, and from the tribute of grain and other supplies which was levied upon them as a mark of their permanent subjection. Moreover, the campaigns could not have been of very long duration, and, after the return of the army on the completion of a war, it is probable that the greater part of it would be disbanded, and the men would go back to their ordinary occupations. Thus the successful prosecution of his foreign policy by Eannatum did not result in any impoverishment of the material resources of his people, and the fertile plains around the city were not left untilled for lack of labour. Indeed, it would appear that in the latter part of his reign he largely increased the area of land under cultivation. For in his longer foundation-inscriptions, after recording his principal conquests, he states: "In that day Eannatum did (as follows). Eannatum, ... when his might had borne fruit, dug a new canal for Ningirsu, and he named it Lummadimdug." By the expression "when his might had borne fruit," it is clear that Eannatum refers to the latter part of his reign, when he was no longer obliged to place his army incessantly in the field, and he and his people were enabled to devote themselves to the peaceful task of developing the material resources of their own district in Sumer.
Another canal, which we know was cut by Eannatum, was that separating the plain of Gu-edin from the territory of Umma, but this was undertaken, not for purposes of irrigation, but rather as a frontier-ditch to mark the limits of the territory of Lagash in that direction. There is little doubt, however, that at least a part of its stream was used for supplying water to those portions of Gu-edin which lay along its banks. Like the canal Lummadimdug, this frontier-ditch was also dedicated to Ningirsu, and in the inscription upon a small column which records this fact, the name of the canal is given as Lummagirnuntashagazaggipadda. But this exceedingly long title was only employed upon state occasions, such as the ceremony of dedication; in common parlance the name was abbreviated to Lummagirnunta, as we learn from the reference to it upon Entemena's Cone. It is of interest to note that in the title of the stone of delimitation, which occurs upon the Stele of the Vultures, reference is made to a canal named Ug-edin, the title of the stone being given as "O Ningirsu, lord of the crown ..., give life unto the canal Ug-edin!" In the following lines the monument itself is described as "the Stele of Gu-edin, the territory beloved of Ningirsu, which I, Eannatum, have restored to Ningirsu"; so that it is clear that the canal, whose name is incorporated in that of the stele, must have had some connection with the frontier-ditch. Perhaps the canal Ug-edin is to be identified with Lummagirnunta, unless one of the two was a subsidiary canal.
BRICK OF EANNATUM, PATESI OF SHIRPURLA, RECORDING HIS GENEALOGY AND CONQUESTS, AND COMMEMORATING THE SINKING OF WELLS IN SHIRPURLA.—Brit. Mus., No. 85977; photo, by Messrs. Mansell & Co.