SARDANAPALUS was, according to the account of Ctesias (preserved by Diodorus, 23 sq.), the last king of Nineveh, and he is described in terms that have made his name proverbial as the type of splendid and luxurious effeminacy. Ctesias’s story cannot be called historical; but the name Sardanapalus seems to be a corruption of Assurbanipal (see vol. iii. p. 188).