Besides the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven may also have been known to the Accadians. We learn from Genesis xiv. that the cities of the plain were among the conquests of Chedor-laomer and his allies, and there is some reason for thinking that the history of Chedor-laomer’s campaign may have been derived from the Babylonian state archives. At all events Amraphel or Amarpel, the king of Sumir, is mentioned first, although Chedor-laomer was the paramount sovereign and the leader of the expedition. The expedition must have taken place during the period when, as we learn from the inscriptions, Babylonia was subject to the monarchs of Elam, though subordinate princes were ruling over the states into which it was divided at the time. Though the name of Chedor-laomer has not been found, Laomer or Lagamar appears as an Elamite god, and several of the Elamite kings bore names compounded with Kudur “a servant,” as Kudur-Nankhunte, “the servant of the god Nankhunte,” Kudur-Mabug, “the servant of Mabug,” and the like. Arioch, king of Ellasar, which probably stands for al Larsa, “the city of Larsa,” has the same name as Eri-Acu (“the servant of the moon-god”), the son of the Elamite monarch Kudur-Mabug, who reigned over Larsa during his father’s lifetime, and was eventually overthrown by the Cossæan conqueror Khammuragas. The text which perhaps relates to the destruction of the guilty cities is a bilingual one, much mutilated, and runs as follows:— 1. An overthrow came from the midst of the deep (the waters above the firmament). 2. The fated punishment from the midst of heaven descended. 3. A storm like a plummet the earth (overwhelmed). 4. Towards the four winds the destroying flood like fire burnt. 5. The inhabitants of the city it had caused to be tormented; their bodies it consumed. 6. In city and country it spread death, and the flames as they rose overthrew. 7. Freeman and slave were equal, and the high places it filled. 8. In heaven and earth like a thunderstorm it had rained; a prey it made. 9. To a place of refuge the gods hastened, and in a throng collected. 10. Its mighty (onset) they fled from, and like a garment it concealed (the guilty). 11. They (feared), and death (overtook them). 12. (Their) feet and hands (it embraced). 13. .......... 14. Their body it consumed. 15. ..... as for the city, its foundations it defiled. 16. .... with (glory?) and breadth his mouth he filled. 17. This man the voice (of the thunder) called; the thunderbolt descended; 18. during the day it flashed; grievously (it fell). Here the fragment breaks off. It is possible that the person referred to in line 17 was the pious man who like Lot escaped the destruction that befell his neighbours. [Illustration: IZDUBAR STRANGLING A LION. FROM KHORSABAD SCULPTURE.] CHAPTER XI. THE IZDUBAR LEGENDS.