LARRA

larra, mariano jose de (1809-1837), spanish satirist, was born at madrid in 1809. his father served as a regimental doctor in the french army, and was compelled to leave the peninsula with his family in 1812. in 1817 larra returned to spain, knowing less spanish than french. his nature was disorderly, his education was imperfect, and, after futile attempts to obtain a degree in medicine or law, he made an imprudent marriage at the age of twenty, broke with his relatives and became a journalist. on the 27th of april 1831 he produced his first play, _no mas mostrador_, based on two pieces by scribe and dieulafoy. though wanting in originality, it is brilliantly written, and held the stage for many years. on the 24th of september 1834 he produced _macias_, a play based on his own historical novel, _el doncel de don enrique el doliente_ (1834). the drama and novel are interesting as experiments, but larra was essentially a journalist, and the increased liberty of the press after the death of ferdinand vii. gave his caustic talent an ampler field. he was already famous under the pseudonyms of "juan perez de munguia" and "figaro" which he used in _el pobrecito hablador_ and _la revista espanola_ respectively. madrid laughed at his grim humour; ministers feared his vitriolic pen and courted him assiduously; he was elected as deputy for avila, and a great career seemed to lie before him. but the era of military _pronunciamientos_ ruined his personal prospects and patriotic plans. his writing took on a more sombre tinge; domestic troubles increased his pessimism, and, in consequence of a disastrous love-affair, he committed suicide on the 13th of february 1837. larra lived long enough to prove himself the greatest prose-writer that spain can boast during the 19th century. he wrote at great speed with the constant fear of the censor before his eyes, but no sign of haste is discernible in his work, and the dexterity with which he aims his venomous shafts is amazing. his political instinct, his abundance of ideas and his forcible, mordant style would have given him a foremost position at any time and in any country; in spain, and in his own period, they placed him beyond all rivalry. (j. f.-k.) larsa (biblical _ellasar_, gen. xiv. 1), an important city of ancient babylonia, the site of the worship of the sun-god, shamash, represented by the ancient ruin mound of senkereh (senkera). it lay 15 m. s.e. of the ruin mounds of warka (anc. _erech_), near the east bank of the shatt-en-nil canal. larsa is mentioned in babylonian inscriptions as early as the time of ur-gur, 2700 or 2800 b.c., who built or restored the _ziggurat_ (stage-tower) of e-babbar, the temple of shamash. politically it came into special prominence at the time of the elamite conquest, when it was made the centre of elamite dominion in babylonia, perhaps as a special check upon the neighbouring erech, which had played a prominent part in the resistance to the elamites. at the time of khammurabi's successful struggle with the elamite conquerors it was ruled by an elamite king named eriaku, the arioch of the bible, called rim-sin by his semitic subjects. it finally lost its independence under samsu-iluna, son of khammurabi, c. 1900 b.c., and from that time until the close of the babylonian period it was a subject city of babylon. loftus conducted excavations at this site in 1854. he describes the ruins as consisting of a low, circular platform, about 41⁄2 m. in circumference, rising gradually from the level of the plain to a central mound 70 ft. high. this represents the ancient _ziggurat_ of the temple of shamash, which was in part explored by loftus. from the inscriptions found there it appears that, besides the kings already mentioned, khammurabi, burna-buriash (buryas) and the great nebuchadrezzar restored or rebuilt the temple of shamash. the excavations at senkereh were peculiarly successful in the discovery of inscribed remains, consisting of clay tablets, chiefly contracts, but including also an important mathematical tablet and a number of tablets of a description almost peculiar to senkereh, exhibiting in bas-relief scenes of everyday life. loftus found also the remains of an ancient babylonian cemetery. from the ruins it would appear that senkereh ceased to be inhabited at or soon after the persian conquest. see w. k. loftus, _chaldaea and susiana_ (1857). (j. p. pe.)