Book 12
39
However, Sardanapalus does not appear to have lived all his life in entire inaction; for the inscription on his tomb says—- Sardanapalus The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes, In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus; But now he's dead. And Amyntas, in the third book of his Account of the Posts, says that at Nineveh there is a very high mound, which Cyrus levelled with the ground when he besieged the city, and raised another mound against the city; and that this mound was said to have been erected by Sardanapalus the son of King Ninus; and that on it there was said to be inscribed, on a marble pillar and in Chaldaic characters, the following inscription, which Chærilus translated into Greek, and reduced to metre. And the inscription is as follows— I was the king, and while I lived on earth, And saw the bright rays of the genial sun, I ate and drank and loved; and knew full well The time that men do live on earth was brief, And liable to many sudden changes, Reverses, and calamities. Now others Will have th' enjoyment of my luxuries, Which I do leave behind me. For these reasons I never ceased one single day from pleasure. But Clitarchus, in the fourth book of his History of Alexander, says that Sardanapalus died of old age after he had lost the sovereignty over the Syrians. 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 was 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.
