Ellasar (Hastings' Dictionary)

Arioch, king of Ellasar, was one of the vassal Babylonian kings wlio took part along witli their suzerain, Chedor-laomer of Elara, in his campaign against (Janaan (Gn 14'). In the early days of Assyri- ology (see F. Lenormant, La Lntiffue primitive de la Chaldie (1875), pp. 377-379) he was already identified by the decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions with Eri-Aku, king of Larsa, who was called Rim-Sin (or Rim-Agu) by liis Semitic subjects.

The identification has now been verified by further discoveries, which have shown that Kri-Aku was a contemporary of Kudur-Lagamar (Chedor-laomer) of Elam, Tudghula or Tid'al, and Kbammurabi or Ammi-rabi, wliom recent research has proved to be the Ara-raphel of Genesis. Larsa is now represented by the mounds of Senkereh, in Lower Babylonia, on the east bank of the Euphrates and about midway between the sites of Erech ( JVarka) and Ur (Mukayijar).

One of its early names was Ararma, and it was celebrated for its temple and worship of the Sun-god (see Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babuloninns, pp. 166, 167). The temple, called Bil-Uri by the Semites, was of very ancient date, and had been restored by Ur- xJau (?), B.C. 2700, by Kharamurabi, by Nebucliad- rezzar, and by Nabonidus. Amon" the ruins of its library and tombs Loftus found fragments of a mathematical work (Ckaldwa and Susiann, pp. 255, 256).

The biblical form of the name probably represents &l Larsa, 'the city of Larsa' (but see Ball's note on Gn 14> in Haupt's OT). LiTERATURB. — Sayce, HCM 165 ff. ; Loftus, Chaldaa and Sueiana, 240 ff. ; Delitzsch, Mo lag dat Parattui I 223 f. ; Tiele, Ge^ch. L 86 ; Schrader, COT on Gn 14. See also Hommel's art. Babylonia, p. 226'> in present voL, and his AncierU Hebrew Tradition, 148 L A. H. SAYCE.