Khammurabi's long reign of fifty-five years has hitherto yielded us but a small number of monuments--seals, heads of sceptres, alabaster vases, and pompous inscriptions, scarcely any of them being of historical interest. He was famous for the number of his campaigns, no details of which, however, have come to light, but the dedication of one of his statues celebrates his good fortune on the battlefield. "Bel has lent thee sovereign majesty: thou, what awaitest thou?--Sin has lent thee royalty: thou, what awaitest thou?--Ninip has lent thee his supreme weapon: thou, what awaitest thou?--The goddess of light, Ishtar, has lent thee the shock of arms and the fray: thou, what awaitest thou?--Shamash and Bamman are thy varlets: thou, what awaitest thou?--It is Khammurabi, the king, the powerful chieftain--who cuts the enemies in pieces,--the whirlwind of battle--who overthrows the country of the rebels--who stays combats, who crushes rebellions,--who destroys the stubborn like images of clay,--who overcomes the obstacles of inaccessible mountains." The majority of these expeditions were, no doubt, consequent on the victory which destroyed the power of Kimsin. It would not have sufficed merely to drive back the Elamites beyond the Tigris; it was necessary to strike a blow within their own territory to avoid a recurrence of hostilities, which might have endangered the still recent work of conquest. Here, again, Khammurabi seems to have met with his habitual success. [Illustration: 057.jpg HEAD OF A SCEPTRE IN COPPER, BEARING THE NAME OF KHAM-MURABI] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a rapid sketch made at the British Museum. Ashnunak was a border district, and shared the fate of all the provinces on the eastern bank of the Tigris, being held sometimes by Elam and sometimes by Chaldaea; properly speaking, it was a country of Semitic speech, and was governed by viceroys owning allegiance, now to Babylon, now to Susa.* Khammurabi seized this province, and permanently secured its frontier by building along the river a line of fortresses surrounded by earthworks. Following the example of his predecessors, he set himself to restore and enrich the temples. * Pognon discovered inscriptions of four of the vicegerents of Ashnunak, which he assigns, with some hesitation, to the time of Khammurabi, rather than to that of the kings of Telloh. Three of these names are Semitic, the fourth Sumerian; the language of the inscriptions bears a resemblance to the Semitic dialect of Chaldaea.