A Senate of Women

Byron's "Sardanapalus."

Heliogabalus (A.D. 218-222), who has been called "the Sardanapalus of Rome," created a Senate of Women, who occupied the Quirinal, and gravely discussed matters of toilet and etiquette. By some strange confusion of Western historians, the character and deeds of Saracus, who was a voluptuary without spirit or enterprise, have been transferred to Sardanapalus, one of the greatest warrior-kings of the Assyrian Empire. The confusion still further makes Sardanapalus the last King of Assyria, who, finding himself unable to defend his Kingdom against the Medes, set fire to his palace and perished in the flames. The Assyrian records have now made it clear that this discredit belongs to Saracus.

Lord Byron, in his tragedy of "Sardanapalus," has given a most vivid picture of the closing scenes of the Assyrian Empire (625 B. C.). The great poet has committed the common error, and adds to it a geographical one hardly pardonable--that of placing the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, on the banks of the Euphrates, instead of on the Tigris. Nevertheless, "Sardanapalus," though highly poetical, is an imperishable monument of the sunset of Assyrian glory.