14 Law and Morality Abroad (to ca. ad 1550)government within those cities. As early as 4000 bc, there is an example of
the ruler of Kish acting as an arbitrator in a boundary dispute between two
other cities (Shirpurla and Gishku).
Th e expression “confederal society” has been used to describe this hege-
monic arrangement. It would appear that military strength was the basis
of the leadership role— so that the dominant position could, and did, shift
from one city to another over the course of time. Th is occurred, in the stan-
dard formula of the time, when the erstwhile leading kingdom “was stricken
by force of arms.” But there was a concern that, at all times, some city or
other must be in possession of the leadership. “Th e kingship must reside
somewhere” was a standard formula.
Arbitration was not invariably successful in preventing wars. It is inter-
esting, though, that our oldest extant record of a war in which the causes are
set out concerned not a war of conquest or aggression, but, more prosaically,
a boundary dispute between the two Sumerian cities of Lagash and Umma.
Th e aff air is narrated, fragmentarily, on the Stele of the Vultures, at present
located in the Louvre in Paris, and dating from about 2460 bc. It is said to be
the oldest known public war monument in history, but it also does duty as
history’s earliest surviving peace treaty. In it, the victory of Lagash is com-
memorated, with the ruler of Umma expressly identifi ed as a trespasser. Th e
boundary is defi ned (in Lagash’s favor), and the ruler of Umma swears an
oath to respect it. Th e stele was probably erected along the boundary and
probably accompanied by a curse at the end to discourage tampering.
Th e ancient Middle East is also the source of our earliest detailed infor-
mation on treaty- making practice in general. Th e Elder Pliny, the Roman
encyclopedist of the fi rst century ad, opined that the Athenian hero Th eseus
had (somehow) invented treaty making, but in this respect, as in so many, he
was far off the mark. Th e earliest surviving treaty of peacetime friendship
between two states dates from the twenty- third century bc and was con-
cluded between the Syrian state of Ebla and the region of Abarsal, in present-
day northern Iraq. It contained provisions relating to the travel of messen-
gers and merchants between the two states and appears also to have confi rmed
Abarsal as some kind of protected state or vassal kingdom of Ebla. In gen-
eral, peacemaking and alliances were a common topic of treaty makers. So
was law enforcement, in the form of cooperation against banditry or ar-
rangements for the extradition of criminals.