the last king of Assyria, whose character is one of the most infamous in history. He is said to have sunk so far in depravity, that, as far as he could, he changed his very sex and nature. He clothed himself as a woman, and spun amidst companies of his concubines. He painted his face, and behaved in a more lewd manner than the most lascivious harlot. In short, he buried himself in the most unbounded femininity, quite regardless of sex and the dictates of nature. Having grown odious to all his subjects, a rebellion was formed against him by Arbaces the Mede and Belesis the Babylonian. They were attended, however, with very bad success at first, being defeated with great slaughter in three pitched battles. With great difficulty Belesis prevailed upon his men to keep the field only five days longer; when they were joined by the Bactrians, who had come to the assistance of Sardanapalus, but had been prevailed upon to renounce their allegiance to him. With this reinforcement they twice defeated the troops of Sardanapalus, who shut himself up in Nineveh the capital of his empire. The city held out for three years; at the end of which, Sardanapalus finding himself unable to hold out any longer, and dreading to fall into the hands of an enraged enemy, retired into his palace, in a court of which he caused a vast pile of wood to be raised; and heaping upon it all his gold and silver, and royal apparel, and at the same time inclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, he set fire to it, and so destroyed himself and all together.