Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/59

 800 ECBATANA. mand of Deioces, who had been elected king hj the people, after they had renoanced thmr former inde- pendence. Herodotus describes with oonsidenble mi- nuteness the peculiar character of this stmctore, — which had seven concentric walls, each inner one being higher than the next outer one bj the battlements only. The nature of the ground, which was a conical hill, fiivoured this mode of building. These battle- ments were painted with a series of different colours: the outermost was white, the second black, the third purple, tlie 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. IL Geogr. Soc V0I.X. p. 128.) Heri)dotus adds, what is clearly improbable, that the size of the outer wall equalled in drcumference that of the city of Athens. He probably obtained his information from the Medes he met with at Babylon. Diodoms, on the other hand, states that Arbaces, on the destruction of Ninevdi, transferred the seat of empire to Ecbatana (ii. 24 — 28)y BO that, according to him, it must have been idready a great city. Xenophon, at the feot of the Carduchian hills, heard that there were two principal roads from Assyria ; one to the SL into Babylonia and Media, and the other to the £. to Susa and Ecbatana. It would seem pretty certain, that the former is the road by Kermanahdh to ffatnaddn ; the latter, that by Rowandiz and Keli Shin rata Azerbaijan, and thence through the valleys of Kurdistdn {Mah-Sabadan) and Laritt&n to Susa. He mentions that the great king passed his summer and spring respectively at Susa and Ecbatana (^Anab, ilL 5. § 15), and, in another place, that the Persian monarch spent generally two summer months at Ec- batana, three spring months at Susa, and the remain- ing seven months at Babylon (^Cyrop, viii. 6. § 22). The same fact is noticed by Strabo (xi. p. 523). During the period of the ware 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 Xeno- phon (Arrian, Anab, iii. 19. § 2). Alexander marching in pursuit of him, comes to it from Susa (iii. 19. § 4), and transports thither as to a place of peculiar security the plunder which he had taken previously at Babylon and Susa, ordering Parmenio to place them cif r^v Hutpay r^v 4if ^SardofoiSy and to leave there a force of 6000 Macedonians under Harpalus as their guard (iii 19. § 7). Again, when Alexander at last overtook and captured B^us, he sends him to Ecbatana — as to the most important place in his new dominions, to be put to death by the Medes and Peruans (iv. 7. § 3); and, on his return from the extreme east, Alexander sacrifices at Ecbatana and exhibits • games and musical contests (vii. 14. § 1). 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. 14. § 5). 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 ECBATANA. richness of its land being remarkable' and the abundance both of its inhabitants and of iti cattle. He remarks of Ecbatana itself, that it was situated in the northern part of the prorince, adjoining the districts which extend thence to the PaJus Maeotis and the Euxine, — and that it was under the roots of Mt Oronies (Eboend) 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 fnll of rich and beautiful workmanship, — all the wood used being cedar or cypress, but wholly covered with silver and golden plates : moat of these me- tallic ornaments, he subsequently states, had beea carried away by the soldiers of Alexander, Antigoaiu and Seleucus, the temple of Aena {Anaitit) alooe preserving some of tibese decorations up to the time when Antiochus came there ; so that a con- siderable sum of money was coined £rom them. The book of Judith gives a remarkable aoooont of the building of Ecbatana " in the days of Arphaxad who reigned over the Medes in Eicbatana," from which it is evident that it was a pkoe of giest strength (i. 2—4). It has not been quite satis- factorily made out who this Arphaxad was; and some have identified him with Phraortes and some with Deiooest The former is, perhaps, the most probable omclusion, as the same book relates a kw verses further his overthrow bj Nebuchodonosor " in the mountains of Ragau ** (v. 14), which cor- responds with Herodotus's statement, that this king fell in a battle with the Assyrians (i. 102). The place is also mentioned in 2 Maccab. i. 3, where it is stated that Antiochus died there, on his flight from Persepolis ; in Tobitj ii. 7, vi. 5, vii. 1, where it is evidently a place of importance ; and in Eara, vL 2, under the name of Achmetha, when the decree of Cyrus for the restoration of the Jews was found "in the palace that is in the province of the Medes." Subsequently to the period of the wars of the Selencidae, we find scarcely any mentioo of Ecbatana, — and it might be presumed that it had ceased to be a phice of any note, or that its site had been occupied by a city of some other name : Plin/i however, alludes to it, stating that it was built (more probably, restored) by Seleucus (vl 14. s. 17) ; adding, a little further on, that it was re* moved by Dareius to the mountains (vi. 26. s. 29), though it would seem, that his tvro statements can hardly apply to the same place. Curtius speaks of it as " caput Mediae," remarking that it was (at the time when he was writing) under the domi- nation of the Parthians (v. 8. § 1); while Joeephos preserves, what was probably a Jewish traditJiWi that Daniel built, at Ecbatana in Media, a tower of beautiful workmanship, still extant in his day, asserting that it was the custom for the kings both Persian and Parthian to be buried there, and for the custody of their tombs to be c(»nmitted to a Jewish priest (^AnL Jud. x. 11. § 7). He sUtes that it was in this tower that the decree of Gyrus was discovered. {AnL Jud xi. 4. § 6.) LasUy, Ammianus places it in Adiabene (or Assyria Proper), — on the confines of which province he must him- self have marched, when acocHnpanying the anny 01 Jovian (xxiii. 6). Various theories have been propounded as to the origin of the name of Ecbatana, none 0* which arj^ we think, satisfectory. Bochart supposed that it was derived from Agbathoj which, he says, means " variously coloured ;" bat it is more probaWs