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.