in Susiana and elsewhere.  Reliefs of a character very similar to these last were found by Mr. Layard in certain chambers of the palace of Sennacherib, which had received their ornamentation from Asshur-bani-pal.  They were remarkable for the unusual number and small size of the figures, for the variety and spirit of the attitudes, and for the careful finish of all the little details of the scenes represented upon them.  Deficient in grouping, and altogether destitute of any artistic unity, they yet give probably the best representation that has come down to us of the confused melee of an Assyrian battle, showing us at one view, as they do, all the various phases of the flight and pursuit, the capture and treatment of the prisoners, the gathering of the spoil, and the cutting off the heads of the slain.  These reliefs form now a portion of our National Collection.  A good idea may be formed of them from Mr. Layard’s Second Series of Monuments, where they form the subject of five elaborate engravings.

Besides his own great palace at Koyun-jik, and his additions to the palace of his grandfather at the same place, Asshur-bani-pal certainly constructed some building, or buildings, at Nebbi Yunus, where slabs inscribed with his name and an account of his wars have been found.  If we may regard him as the real monarch whom the Greeks generally intended by their Sardanapalus, we may say that, according to some classical authors, he was the builder of the city of Tarsus in Cilicia, and likewise of the neighboring city of Anchialus; though writers of more authority tells us that Tarsus, at any rate, was built by Sennacherib.  It seems further to have been very generally believed by the Greeks that the tomb of Sardanapalus was in this neighborhood.  They describe it as a monument of some height, crowned by a statue of the monarch, who appeared to be in the act of snapping his fingers.  On the stone base was an inscription in Assyrian characters, of which they believed the sense to run as follows:—­“Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxes, built Tarsus and Anchialus in one day.  Do thou, O stranger, eat, and drink, and amuse thyself; for all the rest of human life is not worth so much as this”—­“this” meaning the sound which the king was supposed to be making with his fingers.  It appears probable that there was some figure of this kind, with an Assyrian inscription below it, near Anchialus; but, as we can scarcely suppose that the Greeks could read the cuneiform writing, the presumed translation of the inscription would seem to be valueless.  Indeed, the very different versions of the legend which are given by different writers sufficiently 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.