of Urartu.

Psamtik of Egypt had thrown off the yoke of Assyria, and with the
assistance of Carian mercenaries received from his ally, Gyges, king
of Lydia, extended his sway southward. He made peace with Ethiopia by
marrying a princess of its royal line. Gyges must have weakened his
army by thus assisting Psamtik, for he was severely defeated and slain
by the Cimmerians. His son, Ardys, appealed to Assyria for help.
Ashur-bani-pal dispatched an army to Cilicia. The joint operations of
Assyria and Lydia resulted in the extinction of the kingdom of the
Cimmerians about 645 B.C.

The records of Ashur-bani-pal cease after 640 B.C., so that we are
unable to follow the events of his reign during its last fourteen
years. Apparently peace prevailed everywhere. The great monarch, who
was a pronounced adherent of the goddess cults, appears to have given
himself up to a life of indulgence and inactivity. Under the name
Sardanapalus he went down to tradition as a sensual Oriental monarch
who lived in great pomp and luxury, and perished in his burning palace
when the Medes revolted against him. It is evident, however, that the
memory of more than one monarch contributed to the Sardanapalus
legend, for Ashur-bani-pal had lain nearly twenty years in his grave
before the siege of Nineveh took place.

In the Bible he is referred to as "the great and noble Asnapper", and
he appears to have been the emperor who settled the Babylonian,
Elamite, and other colonists "in the cities of Samaria".[550]

He erected at Nineveh a magnificent palace, which was decorated on a
lavish scale. The sculptures are the finest productions of Assyrian
art, and embrace a wide variety of subjects--battle scenes, hunting
scenes, and elaborate Court and temple ceremonies. Realism is combined
with a delicacy of touch and a degree of originality which raises the
artistic productions of the period to the front rank among the
artistic triumphs of antiquity.

Ashur-bani-pal boasted of the thorough education which he had received
from the tutors of his illustrious father, Esarhaddon. In his palace
he kept a magnificent library. It contained thousands of clay tablets
on which were inscribed and translated the classics of Babylonia. To
the scholarly zeal of this cultured monarch is due the preservation of
the Babylonian story of creation, the Gilgamesh and Etana legends, and
other literary and religious products of remote antiquity. Most of the
literary tablets i