How monarchies changed hands (1)

Text
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 1.19:
In the sixty-fourth year before the founding of the City (= Rome), Sardanapalus reigned over the Assyrians. He was their last king and a man more corrupt than a woman. Arbatus, who was his prefect at that time and in authority over the Medes, cursed his king when he saw him dressed in the garb of a woman spinning purple cloth in the midst of a flock of harlots. Soon afterward the Median people rose in revolt and forced Sardanapalus to go to war. When he was defeated, he threw himself upon a burning pyre. The kingdom of the Assyrians then gave way to that of the Medes. After many wars had broken out on all sides … the sovereignty passed through various stages in a cycle first to the Scythians, next to the Chaldeans, and finally back again to the Medes.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 1.19

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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