Where is ecbatana located

These treasures, to the value of 4, talents, were coined into money by Antiochus the Great of Syria. See Herodotus, i. The Greeks supposed it to be the capital of Media , and ascribed its foundation to Deioces the Daiukku of the Cuneiform language inscriptions , who is said to have surrounded his palace in it with seven concentric walls of different colours.

So far no evidence of Median existence in Hagmatana hill has been attested. Only evidence observed in the area belong to the Parthian era afterwards. Under the Persian kings, Ecbatana, situated at the foot of Mount Elvend , became a summer residence. Later, it became the capital of the Parthian kings.

Sir Henry Rawlinson attempted to prove that there was a second and older Ecbatana in Media Atropatene on the site of the modern Takht-i-Suleiman, but the cuneiform texts imply that there was only one city of the name, and Takht-i Suleiman is the Ganzak Gazaca of classical geography.

Ecbatana was the main mint of the Parthians , it produced drachm, tetradrachm, and assorted bronze denominations. It is also mentioned in the Bible Ezra , vi. Arrian [7] After bringing these matters to a successful issue, he advanced towards Media ; for he ascertained that Darius was there. Now Darius had formed the resolution, if Alexander remained at Susa or Babylon , to stay there among the Medes , in order to see if any change of policy were made by Alexander. But if the latter marched against him, he resolved to proceed into the interior towards Parthia and Hyrcania , as far as Bactria , laying waste all the land and making it impossible for Alexander to advance any further.

He therefore sent the women and the rest of the property which he still retained, together with the covered carriages, to what were called the Caspian Gates [1] ; but he himself stayed at Ecbatana , [2] with the forces which had been collected from those who were at hand. Hearing this, Alexander advanced towards Media , and invading the land of the Paraetacae , [3] he subdued it, and appointed Oxathres , son of Abulites, the former viceroy of Susa , to rule as viceroy.

Consequently, as we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus, near the close of the fourth century Ecbatana continued to be a strongly fortified city.

Ecbatana ta Ekbatana: the genuine orthography appears to be Agbatana, as it is now written in Herodotus, and as we learn from Steph. Hudson: Ecbatana-ae, Hieron. Its foundation was popularly attributed, like those of many other very ancient places, to Semiramis, who is said to have made a great road to it from Assyria, by Mt. Zarcaeus or Zagros, to have built a palace there, and to have plentifully supplied the district in which it was situated with water, by means of an enormous tunnel or aqueduct.

According to the same author, the city of Semiramis was seated in a place at the distance of twelve stadia from the Orontes Mt. Elwend , and would therefore correspond pretty nearly with the position of the present Hamadan. Herodotus tells a different story: according to him, the city was of later origin, and was built by the command of Deioces, who had been elected king by the people, after they had renounced their former independence.

Herodotus describes with considerable minuteness the peculiar character of this structure, which had seven concentric walls, each inner one being higher than the next outer one by the battlements only. The nature of the ground, which was a conical hill, favoured this mode of building.

These battlements were painted with a series of different colours: the outermost was white, the second black, the third purple, the fourth blue, the fifth bright red, and sixth and seventh, respectively, gilt with silver and gold..

It has been conjectured that this story of the seven coloured walls is a fable of Sabaean origin, the colours mentioned by Herodotus being precisely the same as those used by the Orientals to denote the seven great heavenly bodies, or the seven climates in which they are supposed to revolve.

Rawlinson, J. Herodotus adds, what is clearly improbable, that the size of the outer wall equalled in circumference that of the city of Athens. He probably obtained his information from the Medes he met with at Babylon. Diodorus, on the other hand, states that Arbaces, on the destruction of Nineveh, transferred the seat of empire to Ecbatana ii.

Xenophon, at the foot of the Carduchian hills, heard that there were two principal roads from Assyria; one to the S. It would seem pretty certain, that the former is the road by Kermanshh to Hamadan; the latter, that by Rowandiz and Keli Shin into Azerbaijan, and thence through the valleys of Kurdistan Mah-Sabadan and Laristan to Susa.

He mentions that the great king passed his summer and spring respectively at Susa and Ecbatana Anab. The same fact is noticed by Strabo xi. During the period of the wars of Alexander the Great we have frequent mention of Ecbatana: thus, after Arbela, Dareius flies thither, taking, most likely, the second of the routes noticed by Xenophon Arrian, Anab.

Alexander marching in pursuit of him, comes to it from Susa iii. Again, when Alexander at last overtook and captured Bessus, he sends him to Ecbatana - as to the most important place in his new dominions, to be put to death by the Medes and Persians iv. At Ecbatana, Alexander's favourite Hephaestion died, and the conqueror is said to have destroyed the famous temple of Aesculapius there, in sorrow for him; an anecdote, however, which Arrian does not believe vii.

In Polybius we have a curious description of the grandeur of this ancient town, as it had existed up to the time of Seleucus. He states that, of all the provinces of Asia, Media was the one best fitted, from natural causes, for the maintenance of a great and settled monarchy, the richness of its land being remarkable and the abundance both of its inhabitants and of its cattle.

He remarks of Ecbatana itself, that it was situated in the northern part of the province, adjoining the districts which extend thence to the Palus Maeotis and the Euxine, and that it was under the roots of Mt. Orontes Elwend in a rocky situation. He adds that there were no walls round it, but that it had a citadel of enormous strength, and, adjoining the citadel, a royal palace full of rich and beautiful workmanship, - all the wood used being cedar or cypress, but wholly covered with silver and golden plates: most of these metallic ornaments, he subsequently states, had been carried away by the soldiers of Alexander, Antigonus and Seleucus, the temple of Aena Anaitis alone preserving some of these decorations up to the.

The book of Judith gives a remarkable account of the building of Ecbatana in the days of Arphaxad who reigned over the Medes in Ecbatana, from which it is evident that it was a place of great.

It has not been quite satisfactorily made out who this Arphaxad was; and some have identified him with Phraortes and some with Deioces. The former is, perhaps, the most probable conclusion, as the same book relates a few verses further his overthrow by Nebuchodonosor in the mountains of Ragau v. The place is also mentioned in 2 Maccab.

Subsequently to the period of the wars of the Seleucidae, we find scarcely any mention of Ecbatana, and it might be presumed that it had ceased to be a place of any note, or that its site had been occupied by a city of some other name: Pliny, however, alludes to it, stating that it was built more probably, restored by Seleucus vi.

Curtius speaks of it as caput Mediae, remarking that it was at the time when he was writing under the domination of the Parthians v. He states that it was in this tower that the decree of Cyrus was discovered. Lastly, Ammianus places it in Adiabene or Assyria Proper , on the confines of which province he must himself have marched, when accompanying the army of Jovian xxiii. Various theories have been propounded as to the origin of the name of Ecbatana, none of which are, we think, satisfactory.

Bochart supposed that it was derived from Agbatha, which, he says, means variously coloured; but it is more probable that it should be derived from Achmetha. Herodotus and Ctesias write Agbatana. There seems little doubt that the Apobatana of Isidorus refers to Ecbatana, and is perhaps only a careless mode of pronouncing the name; his words are curious. He speaks of a place called Adrogiananta or Adrapananta, a palace of those among or in the Batani ton en Batanois , which Tigranes, the Armenian, destroyed, and then of Apobatana, the metropolis of Media, the treasury and the temple where they perpetually sacrifice to Anaitis.

If the country of the Batani corresponds, as has been supposed, with Mesobatene, the position and description of Apobatana will agree well enough with the modern Hamadan. This may be the Seleucid refounding of the city to which Pliny Naturalis Historia 6. The Parthian Period. The Parthians continued to use Ecbatana as a royal summer residence Strabo, The Sasanian Period.

Ecbatana remained subject to the Parthians until C. There is conflicting evidence as to whether it continued to be used as a summer palace. Most are attributed to either the Median or Achaemenid periods; few, if any, of these claims can be validated Calmeyer, pp. Apart from coins, few objects ascribed to the Hellenistic, Parthian, or Sasanian periods have been reported. Barthold, An Historical Geography of Iran , tr.

Soucek, Princeton, , pp. Preussischen Gesandtschaft nach Persien und , Leipzig, Vogelsang, Leiden and New York, Diakonoff, Istoriya Midii , Moscow and Leningrad, ; tr.

Dyson, Jr. Boardman, ed. Schmandt-Besserat, ed. The Art of an Empire , Malibu, , pp. Nadjamabadi and G. Submitted tags will be reviewed by site administrator before it is posted online. If you enter several tags, separate with commas. Topic select a topic Burstein, The Babyloniaca of Berossus , Malibu, Iran II, index, s.

Flandin, Voyage en Perse Frye, The Heritage of Persia , London, Herzfeld, Archaeological History of Iran , London, Lockhart, Persian Cities , London, Schmidt, Flights over Ancient Iran , Chicago, Wilson, Persian Life and Customs , Chicago, Stuart C. VIII, Fasc. TAGS ecbatana. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy Add Comment.