previously built by Entemena. Allusions to cities other than Lagash and its component parts in Urukagina's inscriptions are few, and those that do occur fail to throw much light upon the relations he maintained with other city-states. A small object of clay in the form of an olive[53] has been found, which bears the votive inscription: "Ningirsu speaks good words with Bau concerning Urukagina in the temple of Erech,"--a phrase that seems to imply a claim on the part of Lagash to suzerainty over that city. Another votive object of the same class mentions the fortification of the wall of E-babbar,[54] but the reference here is probably not to the famous temple of the Sun-god at Larsa, but to his smaller temple of this name, which stood in Lagash and was afterwards desecrated by the men of Umma. The only other foreign city mentioned in Urukagina's inscriptions is Umma itself, whose relations to Lagash in the reigns of Enannatum I. and Entemena are briefly recorded.[55] The text of the passage is broken, but we may surmise that the short summary of events was intended to introduce an account of Urukagina's own relations with that city. We may note the fact, which this reference proves, that the subsequent descent of the men of Umma upon Lagash and their capture and sack of the city were the result of friction, and possibly of active hostility, during at least a portion of Urukagina's reign. From Urukagina's own texts we thus do not gather much information with regard to the extent of the empire of Lagash under his rule. That he did not neglect the actual defences of his city may be inferred from his repair of the wall of Girsu; it is clear, however, that his interest was not in foreign conquest, nor even in maintaining the existing limits of his dominion, but in internal reform. He devoted all his energies to purifying the administration of his own land, and to stamping out the abuses under which for so long the people had suffered. That he benefited the land as a whole, and earned the gratitude of his poorer subjects, there can be no doubt; but it is to his reforms themselves that we may trace the immediate cause of the downfall of his kingdom. For his zeal had led him to destroy the long-established methods of government, and, though he thereby put an end to corruption, he failed to provide an adequate substitute to take their place. The host of officials he abolished or dispossessed of office had belonged to a military administration, which had made the name of Lagash feared, and they had doubtless been organized with a view to ensuring the stability and protection of the state. Their disappearance mattered little in times of peace; though, even so, Urukagina must have had trouble with the various powerful sections of the population whom he had estranged. When war threatened he must have found himself without an army and without the means of raising one. To this cause we may probably trace the completeness of Umma's victory.