... it has been usual to identify Assurbanipal himself with Sardanapalus.  Thus Professor Rawlinson writes,—"He was no doubt one of the two kings called Sardanapalus, celebrated by Hellanicus; he must have been the warlike Sardanapalus of Callisthenes."  This opinion is worthy of much respect, as having been adopted by the authorities of the British Museum, as indicated on the slabs brought from the palace of Assurbanipal.  It may be observed, however, on the other hand, that as Callisthenes speaks of two kings called Sardanapalus, the one effeminate the other warlike, so Herodotus also speaks of two kings, about the end of the seventh or beginning of the sixth century B.C., both bearing the same title Labynetus, the first of whom, for reasons hitherto unexplained, yielded up the reins of government, and allowed his kingdom to be administered by his wife Nitocris; the second, known as the great king of Babylon, son of Labynetus and Nitocris, against whom Cyrus the Persian, grandson of Astyages, called the mule, had commenced warlike preparations, when, as Megasthenes relates, being seized with frenzy, he ascended the upper terrace of his palace, forewarned the Babylonians of the coming of a Persian mule who should capture Babylon, and suddenly died.  So also Jewish records speak of two great kings, both called Nabuchodonosor, the one who was forsaken by his allies, wanting in military capacity, and given to feasting and luxury, viz., "Nabuchodonosor who reigned at Nineveh, whose dependent provinces made light of his commands, and sent away his ambassadors from them without effect and with disgrace;" the other, the warlike Nebuchadnezzar, who together with Cyaxares, or Ahasuerus, conquered Nineveh, likened by Megasthenes to Hercules, who conquered Tyre, Egypt, and Jerusalem, and established the Babylonian empire.  These two pairs of unwarlike and warlike kings, called Labynetus and Nabuchodnosor, can only be identified with the Nabopalassar and his son Nabuchodrossor of the Chaldean historians; and as it would be unreasonable to imagine three pairs of kings, bearing the same titles, living within the same range of time, and distinguished by the same characteristics of effeminacy and valour, there can be no question that Polyhistor is correct, and that Sardanapalus the effeminate represents Nabopalassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and Sardanapalus the warlike, the warlike Nebuchadnezzar himself; and that Labynetus, or Nabo-netzar, the husband of Nitocris, and Nabuchodonosor who reigned at Nineveh, are one and the same king... (History of Assurbanipal, Smith, 1900)