h they were hostile.

Like Khufu and his descendants, the Pyramid kings of Egypt's fourth
dynasty, the vigorous and efficient monarchs of the Ur-Nina dynasty of
Lagash were apparently remembered and execrated as tyrants and
oppressors of the people. To maintain many endowed temples and a
standing army the traders and agriculturists had been heavily taxed.
Each successive monarch who undertook public works on a large scale
for the purpose of extending and developing the area under
cultivation, appears to have done so mainly to increase the revenue of
the exchequer, so as to conserve the strength of the city and secure
its pre-eminence as a metropolis. A leisured class had come into
existence, with the result that culture was fostered and civilization
advanced. Lagash seems to have been intensely modern in character
prior to 2800 B.C., but with the passing of the old order of things
there arose grave social problems which never appear to have been
seriously dealt with. All indications of social unrest were, it would
appear, severely repressed by the iron-gloved monarchs of Ur-Nina's
dynasty.

The people as a whole groaned under an ever-increasing burden of
taxation. Sumeria was overrun by an army of officials who were
notoriously corrupt; they do not appear to have been held in check, as
in Egypt, by royal auditors. "In the domain of Nin-Girsu", one of
Urukagina's tablets sets forth, "there were tax gatherers down to the
sea." They not only attended to the needs of the exchequer, but
enriched themselves by sheer robbery, while the priests followed their
example by doubling their fees and appropriating temple offerings to
their own use. The splendid organization of Lagash was crippled by the
dishonesty of those who should have been its main support.

Reforms were necessary and perhaps overdue, but, unfortunately for
Lagash, Urukagina's zeal for the people's cause amounted to
fanaticism. Instead of gradually readjusting the machinery of
government so as to secure equality of treatment without impairing its
efficiency as a defensive force in these perilous times, he
inaugurated sweeping and revolutionary social changes of far-reaching
character regardless of consequences. Taxes and temple fees were cut
down, and the number of officials reduced to a minimum. Society was
thoroughly disorganized. The army, which was recruited mainly from the
leisured and official classes, went practically out of existence, so
that traders a