**** Sometimes erroneously read Samdiusatana; but, as a matter of fact, we have contracts of that time, in which a royal name is plainly written as Samsusatana. We should know nothing of these kings had not the scribes of those times been in the habit of dating the contracts of private individuals by reference to important national events. They appear to have chosen by preference incidents in the religious life of the country; as, for instance, the restoration of a temple, the annual enthronisation of one of the great divinities, such as Shamash, Merodach, Ishtar, or Nana, as the eponymous god of the current year, the celebration of a solemn festival, or the consecration of a statue; while a few scattered allusions to works of fortification show that meanwhile the defence of the country was jealously watched over.* These sovereigns appear to have enjoyed long reigns, the shortest extending over a period of five and twenty years; and when at length the death of any king occurred, he was immediately replaced by his son, the notaries' acts and the judicial documents which have come down to us betraying no confusion or abnormal delay in the course of affairs. We may, therefore, conclude that the last century and a half of the dynasty was a period of peace and of material prosperity. Chaldaea was thus enabled to fully reap the advantage of being united under the rule of one individual. It is quite possible that those cities--Uru, Larsa, Ishin, Uruk, and Nippur--which had played so important a part in the preceding centuries, suffered from the loss of their prestige, and from the blow dealt to their traditional pretensions. * Samsuiluna repaired the five fortresses which his ancestor Sumulailu had built. Contract dated "the year in which Ammisatana, the king, built Dur-Ammisatana, near the Sin river," and "the year in which Ammisatana, the king, gave its name to Dur-Iskunsin, near the canal of Ammisatana." Contract dated "the year in which the King Ammisatana repaired Dur-Iskunsin." Contract dated "the year in which Samsuiluna caused 'the wall of Uru and Uruk' to be built."