ets and Ionian slaves.
The Queen is silent.

_Sar._ And why not her brother?

_Sal._ I only echo thee the voice of empires,
Which he who long neglects not long will govern.

_Sar._ The ungrateful and ungracious slaves! they murmur
Because I have not shed their blood, nor led them
To dry into the desert's dust by myriads,
Or whiten with their bones the banks of Ganges;
Nor decimated them with savage laws, 230
Nor sweated them to build up Pyramids,
Or Babylonian walls.

_Sal._ Yet these are trophies
More worthy of a people and their prince
Than songs, and lutes, and feasts, and concubines,
And lavished treasures, and contemned virtues.

_Sar._ Or for my trophies I have founded cities:
There's Tarsus and Anchialus, both built
In one day--what could that blood-loving beldame,
My martial grandam, chaste Semiramis,
Do more, except destroy them?

_Sal._ 'Tis most true; 240
I own thy merit in those founded cities,
Built for a whim, recorded with a verse
Which shames both them and thee to coming ages.

_Sar._ Shame me! By Baal, the cities, though well built,
Are not more goodly than the verse! Say what
Thou wilt 'gainst me, my mode of life or rule,
But nothing 'gainst the truth of that brief record.
Why, those few lines contain the history
Of all things human: hear--"Sardanapalus,
The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes, 250
In one day built Anchialus and Tarsus.
Eat, drink, and love; the rest's not worth a fillip."[10]

_Sal._ A worthy moral, and a wise inscription,
For a king to put up before his subjects!

_Sar._ Oh, thou wouldst have me doubtless set up edicts--
"Obey the king--contribute to his treasure--
Recruit his phalanx--spill your blood at bidding--
Fall down and worship, or get up and toil."
Or thus--"Sardanapalus on this spot
Slew fifty thousand of his enemies. 260
These are their sepulchres, and this his trophy."
I leave such things to conquerors; enough
For me, if I can make my subjects feel
The weight of human misery less, and glide
Ungroaning to the tomb: I take no license
Which I deny to them. We all are men.

_Sal._ Thy Sires have been revered a