AN  OUTLINE  OF
BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN   HISTORY
 

OF the seats of primitive civilization known to man
one of the earliest Is the valley of the Tigris and
the Euphrates. On the alluvial plain at the mouth
of these rivers, ordinarily called Babylonia, lived peoples
enjoying settled conditions of government and culture as
early as 5000 b. c. Who the first settlers were is quite
uncertain, and the problem of their racial relations is still
in dispute. By the time history gains form and consecu¬
tion, however, a type of civilization became dominant and
universal which represented the supremacy of the Semitic
race.

The prevailing form of government was the city state,
and political progress continued In the varying and suc¬
cessive supremacies of the cities, one after another, and
their gradual unification. Thus, among others, Shlrpurla,
Kish, Ur, Agade, Erech, Larsa, and Babylon, formed king¬
doms ruling a territory more or less extensive, and yield¬
ing In turn to more powerful rivals.

A turning point In this earliest period is marked by the
supremacy of the city of Agade under two famous kings,
Sargon and his son Naram Sin. By the testimony of a
later King of Babylon, the date of Naram Sin is fixed at 3750
B. c, and of Sargon, therefore, about 3800. Both kings
testify that they ruled as far south as the centre of the
Babylonian plain, and, if inscriptions coming from a much
later age and ascribed to them are credible, their empire

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