Of the comparatively long reign of Ibi-Sin, and of the events which preceded the downfall of the Dynasty of Ur, we know little, but already during the reigns of his predecessors it is possible to trace some of the causes which led to the decline of the city's power. The wealth obtained from the Elamite provinces and the large increase in the number of public slaves must have introduced an element of luxury into Sumerian life, which would tend to undermine the military qualities of the people and their inclination for foreign service. The incorporation of Sumer and Akkad into a single empire had broken down the last traces of political division between the great cities of the land, and, while it had put an end to local patriotism, it had not encouraged in its place the growth of any feeling of loyalty to the suzerain city. All the great provincial towns were doubtless required to furnish contingents for the numerous military campaigns of the period, and they could have had little satisfaction in seeing the fruits of their conquests diverted to the aggrandizement of a city other than their own. The assumption of divine rank by the later kings of Ur may in itself be regarded as a symptom of the spirit which governed their administration. In the case of Dungi the innovation had followed the sudden expansion of his empire, and its adoption had been based upon political as much as upon personal grounds. But with his descendants the practice had been carried to more extravagant lengths, and it undoubtedly afforded opportunities for royal favourities to obtain by flattery an undue influence in the state. We have already seen that Lugal-magurri, who combined the civil office of patesi of Ur with the military appointment of commander of the fortress, founded a temple for the worship of Gimil-Sin, and it is clear that such an act would have opened an easier road to the royal favour than the successful prosecution of a campaign. It was probably by such methods that ministers at the court of Ur secured the enjoyment of a plurality of offices, which had previously been administered with far greater efficiency in separate hands. The most striking example is afforded by Arad-Nannar, whose name as that of a patesi of Lagash is frequently mentioned upon dated tablets from Tello. He was "sukkal-makh," or chief minister, under the last three kings of Ur, and appears to have succeeded his father Ur-Dunpae, who had held this post in Dungi's reign. From the Tello tablets we know that he also held the patesiate of Lagash during this period, for he received the appointment towards the end of Bûr-Sin's reign[34] and continued to hold it under Ibi-Sin. But the patesiate of Lagash was only one of many posts which he combined. For two gate-sockets have been found at Tello, which originally formed parts of a temple founded in Girsu by Arad-Nannar for the cult of Gimil-Sin, and in the inscriptions upon them he has left us a list of his appointments.[35]