Note 21 — Chapter II · OLD BABYLONIAN HISTORY
Reading edition
[The patesi was an official whose office was sacerdotal as well as administrative. We find him at the head of a state before the ruler assumes the title of king and also a viceregent when the country has been conquered by a more powerful nation. The custom seems to have been in this case for the victorious monarch to reduce the vanquished to the rank of patesi, and in such capacity he and his successors continue the local administration.]