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276 occupy seven other cities. The need for military measures was not limited to the initial phas- es of the ascendancy of Nannar and Ur. We know from inscrip- tions that after Ur and Sumer "enjoyed days of prosperity [and] rejoiced greatly with Ur-Nammu," after Ur-Nammu then rebuilt the Ekur in Nippur, Enlil found him worthy of holding the Divine Weapon; with it Ur-Nammu was to subdue "evil cities" in "for- eign lands": The Divine Weapon. that which in the hostile lands heaps up the rebels in piles, to Ur-Nammu. the Shepherd, He, the Lord Enlil, has given it to him; Like a bull to crush the re foreign land. wa laa ak To destroy the evil cities, Clear them of opposition to the Lofty. These are words reminiscent of biblical prophecies of divine wrath, through the medium of mortal kings, against "evil cities" and "sinful people"; they reveal that beneath the cloak of prosper- ity there was lurking a renewed warfare among the gods—a strug- gle for the allegiance of the masses of mankind. The sad fact is that Ur-Nammu himself, becoming a mighty war- rior, "The Might of Nannar," met a tragic death on the battlefield. "The enemy land revolted, the enemy land acted hostilely"; in a battle in that unnamed but distant land, Ur-Nammu's chariot got stuck in the mud; Ur-Nammu fell off it; "the chariot like a storm rushed along," leaving Ur-Nammu behind, "abandoned on_ the battlefield like a crushed jug." The tragedy was compounded when the boat returning his body to Sumer "in an unknown place had sunk; the waves sank it down, with him [Ur-Nammu] aboard." When the news reached Ur, a great lament went up there; the people could not understand how such a Righteous Shepherd, one who had been just for the people and true to the gods, could have met such a disgraceful end. They could not understand why "the Lord Nannar did not hold him by the hand, why Inanna, Lady of Heaven, did not put her noble arm around his head, why the valiant Utu did not assist him." Why had these gods "step[ped] aside" THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN of Ur-Nammu was to subdue Lagash and slay its governor, then Like a lion to hunt it down; "abandoned on the