r the distribution of commodities. As a
result of his activities Babylon became not only the administrative,
but also the commercial centre of his Empire--the London of Western
Asia--and it enjoyed a spell of prosperity which was never surpassed
in subsequent times. Yet it never lost its pre-eminent position
despite the attempts of rival states, jealous of its glory and
influence, to suspend its activities. It had been too firmly
established during the Hammurabi Age, which was the Golden Age of
Babylonia, as the heartlike distributor and controller of business
life through a vast network of veins and arteries, to be displaced by
any other Mesopotamian city to pleasure even a mighty monarch. For two
thousand years, from the time of Hammurabi until the dawn of the
Christian era, the city of Babylon remained amidst many political
changes the metropolis of Western Asiatic commerce and culture, and
none was more eloquent in its praises than the scholarly pilgrim from
Greece who wondered at its magnificence and reverenced its
antiquities.

Hammurabi's reign was long as it was prosperous. There is no general
agreement as to when he ascended the throne--some say in 2123 B.C.,
others hold that it was after 2000 B.C.--but it is certain that he
presided over the destinies of Babylon for the long period of
forty-three years.

There are interesting references to the military successes of his
reign in the prologue to the legal Code. It is related that when he
"avenged Larsa", the seat of Rim-Sin, he restored there the temple of
the sun god. Other temples were built up at various ancient centres,
so that these cultural organizations might contribute to the welfare
of the localities over which they held sway. At Nippur he thus
honoured Enlil, at Eridu the god Ea, at Ur the god Sin, at Erech the
god Anu and the goddess Nana (Ishtar), at Kish the god Zamama and the
goddess Ma-ma, at Cuthah the god Nergal, at Lagash the god Nin-Girsu,
while at Adab and Akkad, "celebrated for its wide squares", and other
centres he carried out religious and public works. In Assyria he
restored the colossus of Ashur, which had evidently been carried away
by a conqueror, and he developed the canal system of Nineveh.

Apparently Lagash and Adab had not been completely deserted during his
reign, although their ruins have not yielded evidence that they
flourished after their fall during the long struggle with the
aggressive and plundering Elamites.

Hammu