e in Northern Babylonia
with its seat at Agade. Indeed the history of this state can now be
traced back six centuries beyond that of Lagash. Two rulers of Agade,
Naram-Sin (_c._ 3800 B.C.) and Sargon (or to give his fuller name,
Shargani-shar-ali[20]), are the earliest rulers as yet known. These
kings of Agade extended their jurisdiction as far north, at least, as
Nippur on the one side and Sippar on the other. The city of Babylon
itself, if it existed at this period, was therefore included within the
territory of these kings; and it follows that if there existed rulers of
Babylon at this time, which is doubtful (since the city is not
mentioned), they were in the same position of dependency upon the rulers
of Agade as the 'governors' of Lagash were upon some greater power. It
is not until about the middle of the third millennium before this era,
that Babylon comes into prominence.

In the south, as already intimated, the rulers of Lagash and the dynasty
of Ur are the earliest of which we have any record. There is every
reason to believe that further excavations at Mugheir will bring to
light the names of older kings, and the presumption is in favor of
regarding the southern states, or at least some of them, earlier than
any in the north. The climax in the power of the kings of Ur, the period
when they exerted, in fact as well as in name, the sovereignty over all
Sumer and Akkad may be fixed approximately at 3000 B.C. How far we shall
be able to go beyond that, for the beginnings of this state, must, for
the present, remain doubtful, with the chances in favor of a
considerably earlier date; and it may be that prior to Ur and Lagash
there were dynasties established elsewhere,--at Eridu, perhaps,--the
existence of which will be revealed by future discoveries. An
independent state with its seat at Uruk follows upon the culminating
period of the glory of Ur, and may be regarded, indeed, as an indication
that the rulers of Ur had lost their control over the whole of Southern
Babylonia. Isin, whose site has not yet been determined, but which lay
probably to the north of Uruk, was another political center. Its rulers,
so far as we know them, curiously assign the fourth place to the title
'king of Isin,' giving precedence to their control over Nippur, Eridu,
and Uruk. We may conclude from this, that at the time when Isin extended
its supremacy, the greater luster attaching to the old towns of Nippur
and Uruk, was emphasized by t