rabi referred to himself in the Prologue as "a king who commanded
obedience in all the four quarters". He was the sort of benevolent
despot whom Carlyle on one occasion clamoured vainly for--not an
Oriental despot in the commonly accepted sense of the term. As a
German writer puts it, his despotism was a form of Patriarchal
Absolutism. "When Marduk (Merodach)", as the great king recorded,
"brought me to direct all people, and commissioned me to give
judgment, I laid down justice and right in the provinces, I made all
flesh to prosper."[279] That was the keynote of his long life; he
regarded himself as the earthly representative of the Ruler of
all--Merodach, "the lord god of right", who carried out the decrees of
Anu, the sky god of Destiny.

The next king, Samsu-iluna, reigned nearly as long as his illustrious
father, and similarly lived a strenuous and pious life. Soon after he
came to the throne the forces of disorder were let loose, but, as has
been stated, he crushed and slew his most formidable opponent,
Rim-Sin, the Elamite king, who had gathered together an army of
allies. During his reign a Kassite invasion was repulsed. The earliest
Kassites, a people of uncertain racial affinities, began to settle in
the land during Hammurabi's lifetime. Some writers connect them with
the Hittites, and others with the Iranians, vaguely termed as
Indo-European or Indo-Germanic folk. Ethnologists as a rule regard
them as identical with the Cossaei, whom the Greeks found settled
between Babylon and Media, east of the Tigris and north of Elam. The
Hittites came south as raiders about a century later. It is possible
that the invading Kassites had overrun Elam and composed part of
Rim-Sin's army. After settled conditions were secured many of them
remained in Babylonia, where they engaged like their pioneers in
agricultural pursuits. No doubt they were welcomed in that capacity,
for owing to the continuous spread of culture and the development of
commerce, rural labour had become scarce and dear. Farmers had a
long-standing complaint, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the
labourers are few".[280] "Despite the existence of slaves, who were
for the most part domestic servants, there was", writes Mr. Johns,
"considerable demand for free labour in ancient Babylonia. This is
clear from the large number of contracts relating to hire which have
come down to us.... As a rule, the man was hired for the harvest and
was free directly after