* This dynasty, which is known to us in its entirety by the two lists of G. Smith and by Pinches, was legitimately composed of only eleven kings, and was known as the Babylonian dynasty, although Sayce suspects it to be of Arabian origin.  It is composed as follows:—­

[Illustration:  039.jpg TABLE]

The dates of this dynasty are not fixed with entire certainty.  The first of them, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign, and documents of public or private interest abound in proportion as we follow down the line of his successors.  Sumulailu, who reigned after him, was only distantly related to his predecessor; but from Sumulailu to Sam-shusatana the kingly power was transmitted from father to son without a break for nine generations, if we may credit the testimony of the official lists.*

* Simulailu, also written Samu-la-ilu, whom Mr. Pinches has found in a contract tablet associated with Pungunila as king, was not the son of Sumuabim, since the lists do not mention him as such; he must, however, have been connected with some sort of relationship, or by marriage, with his predecessor, since both are placed in the same dynasty.  A few contracts of Sumulailu are given by Meissner.  Samsuiluna calls him “my forefather (d-gula-mu), the fifth king before me.”

Hommel believes that the order of the dynasties has been reversed, and that the first upon the lists we possess was historically the second; he thus places the Babylonian dynasty between 2035 and 1731 B.C.  His opinion has not been generally adopted, but every Assyriologist dealing with this period proposes a different date for the reigns in this dynasty; to take only one characteristic example, Khammurabi is placed by Oppert in the year 2394-2339, by Delitzsch- Murdter in 2287-2232, by Winckler in 2264-2210, and by Peiser in 2139-2084, and by Carl Niebuhr in 2081-2026.

Contemporary records, however, prove that the course of affairs did not always run so smoothly.  They betray the existence of at least one usurper—­Immeru—­who, even if he did not assume the royal titles, enjoyed the supreme power for several years between the reigns of Zabu and Abilsin.  The lives of these rulers closely resembled those of their contemporaries of Southern Chaldaea.  They dredged the ancient canals, or constructed new ones; they restored the walls of their fortresses, or built fresh strongholds on the frontier;* they religiously kept the festivals of the divinities belonging to their terrestrial domain, to whom they annually rendered solemn homage.