In addition to holding the posts of chief minister and patesi of Lagash, he was also priest of Enki, governor of Uzargarshana, governor of Babishue, patesi of Sabu and of the land of Gutebu, governor of Timat-Enlil, patesi of Al-Gimil-Sin,[36] governor of Urbillu, patesi of Khamasi and of Gankhar, governor of Ikhi, and governor of the Su-people and of the land of Kardaka. At some time during the reign of Gimil-Sin Arad-Nannar thus combined in his own person twelve important appointments, involving the administration of no less than thirteen separate cities and provinces. The position of some of the places enumerated is still uncertain, but it is clear that several were widely separated from one another. While Lagash, for instance, lay in the south of Sumer, Sabu was in Elam and Urbillu and Gankhar more to the north in the region of the Zagros mountains. This centralization of authority under the later kings of Ur undoubtedly destroyed the power attaching to the patesiate at a time when the separate cities of the land had enjoyed a practical autonomy; and it incidentally explains the survival of the title, under the First Dynasty of Babylon, as that of a comparatively subordinate class of officials. But the policy of centralization must have had a more immediate effect on the general administration of the empire. For it undoubtedly lessened the responsibilities of local governors, and it placed the central authority, which the king himself had previously enjoyed, in the hands of a few officials of the court. The king's deification undoubtedly tended to encourage his withdrawal from the active control of affairs, and, so long as his divine rites were duly celebrated, he was probably content to accept without question the reports his courtiers presented to him. Such a system of government was bound to end in national disaster, and it is not surprising that the dynasty was brought to an end within forty-one years of Dungi's death. We may postpone until the next chapter an account of the manner in which the hegemony in Babylonia passed from the city of Ur to Isin. [1] See Hilprecht, "Math., Met., and Chron. Tablets," p. 46 f. [2] See Thureau-Dangin, "Königsinschriften," pp. 186 ff. [3] The rebuilding of the wall of Ur was also commemorated in the date-formula for one of the early years of his reign. [4] See the plate opposite p. 246. [5] See King, "Chronicles concerning early Babylonian Kings," Vol. I., pp. 60 ff.; Vol. II., p. 11.