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The inconsistency of traditions concerning Sardanapalus is striking in
Diodorus's account of him. "--MITFORD's _Greece_, 1820, ix. 311-313, and
note 1.

[The story of the sepulchral monument with its cynical inscription rests
on the authority of Aristobulus, who served under Alexander, and wrote
his history. The passage is quoted by Strabo (lib. xiv. ed. 1808, p.
958), and as follows by Athenaeus (lib. xii. cap. 40) in the
_Deipnosophistae_: "And Aristobulus says, 'In Anchiale, which was built
by Sardanapalus, did Alexander, when he was on his expedition against
the Persians, pitch his camp. And at no great distance was the monument
of Sardanapalus, on which there is a marble figure putting together the
fingers of its right hand, as if it were giving a fillip. And there was
on it the following inscription in Assyrian characters:--

Sardanapalus
The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes,
In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus:
Eat, drink, and love, the rest's not worth e'en this. '

By '_this_' meaning the fillip he was giving with his fingers.
"

"We may conjecture," says Canon Rawlinson, "that the monument was in
reality a stele containing the king [Sennacherib] in an arched frame,
with the right hand raised above the left, which is the ordinary
attitude, and an inscription commemorating the occasion of its erection"
[the conquest of Cilicia and settlement of Tarsus]. --_The Five Great
Monarchies, etc. _, 1871, ii. 216. ]

[11] {25}[Compare "Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots. "--_Hamlet_.
act iv. sc. 3, lines 21-23. ]

[12] {27}[Compare--"The fickle reek of popular breath. " _Childe Harold_,
Canto IV. stanza clxxi. line 2. ]

[13] Compare--"I have not flattered its rank breath. " _Childe Harold_,
Canto III. stanza cxiii.