ntly indicate that they had no real
knowledge of its purport. We may conjecture that the monument was in
reality a stele containing the king in an arched frame, with the right
hand raised above the left, which is the ordinary attitude, and an
inscription below commemorating the occasion of its erection. Whether it
was really set up by this king or by one of his predecessors, we cannot
say. The Greeks, who seem to have known more of Asshur-bani-pal than of
any other Assyrian monarch, in consequence of his war in Asia Minor and
his relations with Gyges and Ardys, are not unlikely to have given his
name to any Assyrian monument which they found in these parts, whether
in the local tradition it was regarded as his work or no.

Such, then, are the traditions of the Greeks with respect to this
monarch. The stories told by Ctesias of a king, to whom he gives the
same name, and repeated from him by later writers, are probably not
intended to have any reference to Asshur-bani-pal, the son of
Esar-haddon, but rather refer to his successor, the last king. Even
Ctesias could scarcely have ventured to depict to his countrymen the
great Asshur-bani-pal, the vanquisher of Tirhakah, the subduer of the
tribes beyond the Taurus, the powerful and warlike monarch whose
friendship was courted by the rich and prosperous Gyges, king of Lydia,
as a mere voluptuary, who never put his foot outside the palace gates,
but dwelt in the seraglio, doing woman's work, and often dressed as a
woman. The character of Asshur-bani-pal stands really in the strongest
contrast to the description--be it a portrait, or be it a mere sketch
from fancy--which Ctesias gives of his Sardanapalus. Asshur-bani-pal,
was beyond a doubt one of Assyria's greatest kings. He subdued Egypt and
Susiana; he held quiet possession of the kingdom of Babylon; he carried
his arms deep into Armenia; he led his troops across the Taurus, and
subdued the barbarous tribes of Asia Minor. When he was not engaged in
important wars, he chiefly occupied himself in the chase of the lion,
and in the construction and ornamentation of temples and palaces. His
glory was well known to the Greeks. He was no doubt one of the "two
kings called Sardanapalus," celebrated by Hellanicus; he must have been
"the warlike Sardanapalus" of Cailisthenes; Herodotus spoke of his great
wealth; and Aristophanes used his name as a by-word for magnificence. In
his reign the Assyrian dominions reached their greatest ext