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.