Rim-Sin I

Rim-Sin I ruled the ancient Near East city-state of Larsa from 1758 BC to 1699 BC (in short chronology) or 1822 BC to 1763 BC (middle chronology). His sister En-ane-du was high priestess of the moon god in Ur. Rim-Sin I was a contemporary of Hammurabi of Babylon and Irdanene of Uruk.

Rim-Sin’s reign of Larsa started sometime around 1822 BC (in middle chronology). The first thing he did was to expand Larsa. By 1808 BC, the city was so big that other cities were worried about its growth. The king of Isin, the ruler of Uruk, and the chief of Babylon campaigned against Rim-Sin. He defeated them, then occupied Pi-Naratim (the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates) in 1807, Zibnatum in 1805, Bit-Susin and Uzarbara in 1804, and Kisarra in 1802. He also destroyed Der in that year. In 1801 BC he sacked Uruk, sparing its inhabitants. In 1797 he invaded territory of Isin, finally seizing the capital in 1792 BC, but again sparing the inhabitants. No further events are recorded for the remaining 30 years of Rim-Sin's reign; rather, he dated all these years from his 1792 BC conquest of Isin.

In 1787, the Babylon king Hammurabi attacked Isin and took it over. In 1764 BC, Hammurabi turned against Rim-Sin, who, for the past years had been neutral against Hammurabi. After six months Larsa fell. Rim-Sin was taken prisoner and died there-after.