een the chief cause of its decline, we cannot
say. Its kings married many wives and became surrounded with a numerous
progeny: Urnina had at least four sons. They often entrusted to their
children or their sons-in-law the government of the small towns which
together made up the city: these represented so many temporary fiefs, of
which the holders were distinguished by the title of "vicegerents." This
dismemberment of the supreme authority in the interest of princes, who
believed for the most part that they had stronger claims to the throne
than its occupant, was attended with dangers to peace and to the
permanence of the dynasty. The texts furnish us with evidence of the
existence of at least half a dozen descendants of Akurgal--Inannatuma
I., Intemena, his grandson Inannatuma II, all of whom seem to have been
vigorous rulers who energetically maintained the supremacy of their city
over the neighbouring estates. Inannatuma I., however, proved no match
in the end against Urlamma, the vicegerent of Gishban, and lost part, at
least, of the territory acquired by Idingiranagin, but his son Intemena
defeated Urlamma on the banks of the Lumasirta Canal, and, having killed
or deposed him, gave the vicegerency of Gishban to a certain Hi, priest
of Ninab, who remained his loyal vassal to the end of his days. With
his aid Intemena restored the stelae and walls which had been destroyed
during the war; he also cleared out the old canals and dug new ones, the
most important of which was apparently an arm of the Shatt-el-Hai, and
ran from the Euphrates to the Tigris, through the very centre of the
domains of Ghirsu.

Other kings and vicegerents of doubtful sequence were followed lastly by
Urbau and his son Gudea. These were all piously devoted to Ningirsu in
general, and in particular to the patron of their choice from among
the divinities of the country--Papsukal, Dunziranna, and Ninagal. They
restored and enriched the temples of these gods: they dedicated to
them statues or oblation vases for the welfare of themselves and their
families. It would seem, if we are to trust the accounts which they give
of themselves, that their lives were passed in profound peace, without
other care than that of fulfilling their duties to heaven and its
ministers. Their actual condition, if we could examine it, would
doubtless appear less agreeable and especially less equable; revolutions
in the palace would not be wanting, nor struggles with the other