Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/40

 of gold. And he made the roof of this apartment of large stout beams, and then all the walls of it he made of numerous thick planks, so that it was impossible to escape out of it. And in it he placed ten millions of talents of gold, and a hundred millions of talents of silver, and robes, and purple garments, and every kind of apparel imaginable. And after that he bade the slaves set fire to the pile; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice; but the eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with as much magnanimity as possible.

39. But Clearchus, relating the history of the king of Persia, says that—"in a very prudent manner he proposed prizes for any one who could invent any delicious food. For this is what, I imagine, is meant by the brains of Jupiter and the king. On which account," continues he, "Sardanapalus was the most happy of all monarchs, who during his whole life preferred enjoyment to everything else, and who, even after his death, shows by his fingers, in the figure carved on his tomb, how much ridicule all human affairs deserve, being not worth the snap of his fingers which he makes anxiety about other things."

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