belong almost certainly to the fifth, or
Arabian, dynasty of Berosus, to which he assigns the period of 245 years
--from about B.C. 1546 to B.C. 1300. That the list comprises as many as
fifteen names, whereas Berosus speaks of nine Arabian kings only, need
not surprise us, since it is not improbable that Berosus may have omitted
kings who reigned for less than a year. To arrange the fifteen monarchs
in chronological order is, unfortunately, impossible. Only three of them
have left monuments. The names of the others are found on linguistic and
other tablets, in a connection which rarely enables us to determine
anything with respect to their relative priority or posteriority. We
can, however, definitely place seven names, two at the beginning and five
toward the end of the series, thus leaving only eight whose position in
the list is undetermined.

The series commences with a great king, named Khammurabi, who was
probably the founder of the dynasty, the "Arab" chief who, taking
advantage of the weakness and depression of Chaldaea under the latter
monarchs of the fourth dynasty, by intrigue or conquest established his
dominion over the country, and left the crown to his descendants.
Khammurabi is especially remarkable as having been the first (so far as
appears) of the Babylonian monarchs to conceive the notion of carrying
out a system of artificial irrigation in his dominions, by means of a
canal derived from one of the great rivers. The _Nahar-Khammu-rabi_
("River of Khabbu-rabi "),whereof he boasts in one of his inscriptions,
was no doubt, as he states, "a blessing to the Babylonians"--it "changed
desert plains into well-watered fields; it spread around fertility an
abundance"--it brought a whole district, previously barren, into
cultivation, and it set an example, which the best of the later monarchs
followed, of a mode whereby the productiveness of the country might be
increased to an almost inconceivable extent.

Khammu-rabi was also distinguished as a builder. He repaired the great
temple of the Sun at Senkereh and constructed for himself a new palace at
Kalwadha, or Chilmad, not far from the modern Baghdad. His inscriptions
have been found at Babylon, at Zerghul, and at Tel-Sifr; and it is
thought probable that he made Babylon his ordinary place of residence.
His reign probably covered the space from about B.C. 1546 to B.C. 1520,
when he left his crown to his son, Samsu-iluna. Of this monarch our
notices