After disposing of this source of danger from beyond the Tigris, Sumu-la-ilum continued his predecessor's policy of annexation within the limits of Akkad. In his twenty-seventh year he commemorates the destruction and rebuilding of the wall of Cuthah, suggesting that the city had up to that time maintained its independence and now only yielded it to force of arms. It is significant that in the same year he records that he treated the wall of the god Zakar in a similar fashion, for Dûr-Zakar was one of the defences of Nippur,[61] and lay either within the city-area or in its immediate neighbourhood. That year thus appears to mark Babylon's first bid for the rule of Sumer as well as of Akkad, for the possession of the central city was regarded as carrying with it the right of suzerainty over the whole country. It is noteworthy, too, that this success appears to correspond to a period of great unrest at Nîsin in Southern Babylonia. During the preceding period of forty years the southern cities had continued to rule within their home territory without interference from Babylon. In spite of Sumu-abum's increasing influence in Northern Babylonia, Ur-Ninib of Nîsin had claimed the control of Akkad in virtue of his possession of Nippur, though his authority cannot have been recognized much farther to the north. Like the earlier king of Nîsin, Ishme-Dagan, he styled himself in addition Lord of Erech and patron of Nippur, Ur and Eridu, and so did his son Bûr-Sin II., who succeeded his father after the latter's long reign of twenty-eight years. Of the group of southern cities Larsa alone continued to boast a line of independent rulers, the throne having passed from Gungunum successively to Abi-sarê[62] and Sumu-ilum; and in the latter's reign it would seem that Larsa for a time even ousted Nîsin from the hegemony in Sinner. For we have recovered at Tello the votive figure of a dog, which a certain priest of Lagash named Abba-dugga dedicated to a goddess on his behalf,[63] and in the inscription he refers to Sumu-ilum as King of Ur, proving that the city had passed from the control of Nîsin to that of Larsa. The goddess, to whom the dedication was made, was Nin-Nîsin, "the Lady of Nîsin," a fact suggestive of the further possibility that Nîsin itself may have acknowledged Sumu-ilum for a time. It may be noted that in the list of Nîsin kings one name is missing after those of Itêr-pîsha and Ura-imitti, who followed Bûr-Sin on the throne in quick succession.[64] According to later tradition Ura-imitti had named his gardener, Enlil-bani, to succeed him,[65] and in the list the missing ruler is recorded to have reigned in Nîsin for six months before Enlil-bani's accession. It is perhaps just possible that we should restore his name as that of Sumu-ilum of Larsa,[66] who may have taken advantage of the internal troubles of Nîsin, not only to annex Ur, but to place himself for a few months upon the rival throne, until driven out by Enlil-bani.