Sardanapalus

According to the Greek writer Ctesias, Sardanapalus ( SAR-də-NAP-ə-ləs; Ancient Greek: Σαρδανάπαλος), sometimes spelled Sardanapallus (Σαρδανάπαλλος), was the last king of Assyria, although in fact Aššur-uballiṭ II (612–605 BC) holds that distinction. Ctesias' book Persica is lost, but we know of its contents by later compilations and from the work of Diodorus (II.27). In this account, Sardanapalus, supposed to have lived in the 7th century BC, is portrayed as a decadent figure who spends his life in self-indulgence and dies in an orgy of destruction. The legendary decadence of Sardanapalus later became a theme in literature and art, especially in the Romantic era. The name Sardanapalus is probably a corruption of Ashurbanipal (Aššur-bāni-apli > Sar-dan-ápalos), an Assyrian emperor, but Sardanapalus as described by Diodorus bears little relationship with what is known of that king, who in fact was a militarily powerful, highly efficient and scholarly ruler, presiding over the largest empire the world had yet seen.