Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/655

 SAEDES ness excited a rebellion, headed by Arbaces, satrap of Media, and Belesys, the noblest of the Chaldean priests. He defeated the insur- gents in several battles, and, when at last forced to retreat to Nineveh, sustained a siege of two years. When it became evident that the city could be held no longer, he collected all his treasures and his women, and placing them on an immense pyre perished with them in the flames. The date of the event has been variously assigned to 876, 789, 710, 625, and 606 B. 0. The utter impossibility of recon- ciling the chronology of this account with that given by other authorities, has led many wri- ters to distrust the whole narrative, and to consider Sardanapalus a myth. K. O. Miiller sought in an ingenious and elaborate essay to prove the identity of the god Sandon with Sar- danapalus. Kawlinson is of opinion that the Sardanapalus of Ctesias represents both Asshur- bani-pal, in whose reign the Assyrian empire reached its greatest extent, and his successor Asshur-emit-ilin (according to him the Saracus of Abydenus), in whose time Assyria fell into the hands of the Medes. (See ASSYKIA.) Le- normant identifies him with the predecessor of Tiglath-pileser II., whose name Rawlinson gives the form of Asshur-lukh-khnsh or As- shur-lush, George Smith of Assur-nirari, and Oppert of Asshur-likhish ; but Lenormant, as- suming that there was in Assyrian a peculiar itanaphal f orm of conjugation, reads the name Asshur-tanagbal, whence, by a softening of the consonants, the Greek form Sardanapalus might easily have arisen. The first destruction of Nineveh, thus placed in the reign of As- shur-tanagbal (789 B. 0.) by Lenormant, Op- pert, and Dr. Hincks, is not believed to be his- torical by Rawlinson and many other scholars. SARDES, or Sardis, an ancient city of Asia Mi- nor, capital of Lydia, in the plain N. of Mount Tmolus, on the river Pactolus near its junction with the Hernius, about 45 m. E. of Smyrna. Ancient writers say the town was named after the god of the sun, and it is conjectured that it is identical with the Homeric Hyde. The early history and traditions of Sardes have been given in the article LTDIA. There are but few remains of the magnificent residence of Croesus, in whose time Sardes was one of the richest cities in the world. At the side of a steep hill, on which the walls of the acropo- lis are still standing, are the ruins of a thea- tre and other buildings. In the valley are the remains of a gymnasium, or perhaps a basil- ica, and on the acropolis stand two enormous columns, besides several others lying on the ground, supposed to belong to a temple of Cybele, which Herodotus mentions as having been burned by the revolted lonians when they took the city in 500 B. 0. On the other side of the valley is the necropolis of the Ly- dian kings. Prominent among the tumuli, and the largest of all, is that of Alyattes, which is circular and about 1,140 ft. in diameter. It was discovered that the tomb had been open- SARDINIA 631 ed years ago, and the excavations made here in 1868 by G. Dennis showed that most of the tombs in the necropolis had been rifled. A few mud huts in the midst of the ruins consti- tute the Turkish village of Sart. In the reign of Tiberius Sardes was visited by an earth- quake which convulsed the whole face of the country, and reduced it, together with other important cities, to a heap of ruins. It was rebuilt by the aid of Roman benefactions, and it is supposed that either St. Paul or St. John preached here, and founded the church men- tioned in the Apocalypse as one of the seven churches of Asia. The Seljuks captured Sardes in the llth century, and in 1402 it was almost entirely destroyed by Tamerlane. SARDINE, a small and well known fish of the herring family, and genus alosa (Cuv.). It is regarded by Valenciennes and most ichthyolo- gists as identical with the fish called pilchard on the coasts of Great Britain, though Cuvier made it distinct, giving it the specific name of sardina. Its flesh is very delicate. The fishery employs a great number of men and women on the coasts of Brittany, and to a less extent of Portugal. Sardines are salted, or preserved in olive oil and butter and put up in tin cases for exportation. The larger fish are called celans in France, and pilchards in England; their shoals are preyed upon by codfish, and especially by porpoises. Fish of many other genera of the herring family are called sar- dines. In the East Indies species of clnpeo- nia, spratella, Icowala, and Dussumiera (the last named belonging to the erytJirinidce) are placed on the table as sardines; in the West Indies Tiarengula clupeola (Val.) is called the Spanish sardine, Kn&pellona OrMgnyana (Val.) in South America. The menhaden (A. men- haden) is called the American sardine, and is caught on the coast of New Jersey, put up in oil, and exported in large quantities. SARDINIA (Ital. Sardegna; anc. Ichnusa and Sardinia), next to Sicily, the largest and most important island in the Mediterranean sea, ly- ing N. of Africa, N. W. of Sicily, W. of south- ern Italy, E. of Spain and the Balearic islands, and S. of Corsica, and extending from lat. 38 52' to 41 16' N., and from Ion. 8 8' to 9 50' E. On the west and south it is washed by the Mediterranean proper, and on the east by the Tyrrhenian sea, and it is separated from Cor- sica by a narrow strait called Bocche di Boni- facio ; length 169 m., greatest breadth 96 m. ; area, including several small adjacent islands, 9,399 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 636,660. Its shape is oblong, and its coasts are generally steep and rugged, with deep indentations especially on the west and south. On the E. side are Capes Fi- gari, Co da Cavallo, Comino, Monte Santo, Bel- lavista, Ferrato, and Carbonara, and the bays of Terranova, Orosei, and Tortoli. The gulf of Cagliari cuts a wide semicircular opening on the south between Capes Carbonara and Spar- tivento, beyond which are Cape Teulada and the bay of Teulada or of Isola Rossa. On the