No More Learning

. of Athenaeus, bk. xii. c. 38, translated by C. D. Yonge, 1854, iii.
847. ]

[5] {13}[This prince surpassed all his predecessors in effeminacy,
luxury, and cowardice. He never went out of his palace, but spent all
his time among a company of women, dressed and painted like them, and
employed like them at the distaff. He placed all his happiness and glory
in the possession of immense treasures, in feasting and rioting, and
indulging himself in all the most infamous and criminal pleasures. He
ordered two verses to be put upon his tomb, signifying that he carried
away with him all he had eaten, and all the pleasures he had enjoyed,
but left everything else behind him,--_an epitaph_, says Aristotle, _fit
for a hog_. Arbaces, governor of Media, having found means to get into
the palace, and having with his own eyes seen Sardanapalus in the midst
of his infamous seraglio, enraged at such a spectacle, and not able to
endure that so many brave men should be subjected to a prince more soft
and effeminate than the women themselves, immediately formed a
conspiracy against him. Beleses, governor of Babylon, and several
others, entered into it. On the first rumour of this revolt the king hid
himself in the inmost part of his palace.
Being afterwards obliged to
take the field with some forces which he had assembled, he at first
gained three successive victories over the enemy, but was afterwards
overcome, and pursued to the gates of Nineveh; wherein he shut himself,
in hopes the rebels would never be able to take a city so well
fortified, and stored with provisions for a considerable time. The siege
proved indeed of very great length. It had been declared by an ancient
oracle that Nineveh could never be taken unless the river became an
enemy to the city. These words buoyed up Sardanapalus, because he looked
upon the thing as impossible. But when he saw that the Tigris, by a
violent inundation, had thrown down twenty stadia (two miles and a half)
of the city wall, and by that means opened a passage to the enemy, he
understood the meaning of the oracle, and thought himself lost. He
resolved, however, to die in such a manner as, according to his opinion,
should cover the infamy of his scandalous and effeminate life. He
ordered a pile of wood to be made in his palace, and, setting fire to
it, burnt himself, his eunuchs, his women, and his treasures. --Diod.
Sic. , _Bibl. Hist_. , lib. ii. pag. 78, sqq. , ed.