2.3
Now of the two monarchs Semiramis and Sardanapalus, in whose hands were placed the same power and dominion, Semiramis, Cf. Diodorus, ii. 4-20; Justin, i. 2. though a woman, equipped great expeditions, armed her ranks, established the Babylonian Empire, and sailed about the Persian Gulf subduing the Ethiopians and Arabs. But Sardanapalus, Cf. 326 f, supra; Diodorus, ii. 21. 8 ff; Athenaeus, 528 f; W. K. Prentice, in Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc. liv. (1923) p. 79: but the theory rightly set forth, there, that this description comes from Ctesias’s Persica, is as old as Hemsterhuys; see Wyttenbach’s note on this passage. though born a man, spent his days at home carding purple wool, sitting with his knees drawn up in front of him among his concubines; and when he died, they made a stone statue of him dancing in a barbaric fashion and apparently snapping its fingers above its head. They engraved upon it: Eat, drink, and sport with love; all else is naught. See the note on 330 f, supra.
