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Ecbatana
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<CENTER>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-2]Golden rhyton from Ecbatana[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-2](National Museum, Tehran)[/SIZE][/FONT]</CENTER></TD><TD vAlign=top width="60%" height=2>
Ecbatana (Old Persian Hâgmatâna, 'meeting place'): capital of the ancient Median empire, Hamadân in modern Iran.
Pictures of the excvations of Ecbatana and the Hamadân museum can be found here.
According to the
Histories of the Greek researcher
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Ecbatana was founded by one Deioces, the legendary first king of the
Medes. Herodotus writes:
Deioces bade them build for him a palace worthy of the royal dignity and strengthen him with a guard of spearmen. And the Medes did so: for they built him a large and strong palace in that part of the land which he told them [...]. He built large and strong walls, those which are now called Ecbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. And within the last circle are the royal palace and the treasure-houses. The largest of these walls is in size about equal to the circuit of the wall round Athens; and of the first circle the battlements are white, of the second black, of the third crimson, of the fourth blue, of the fifth red: thus are the battlements of all the circles colored with various tints, and the two last have their battlements one of them overlaid with silver and the other with gold. These walls then Deioces built for himself and round his own palace, and the people he commanded to dwell round about the wall.
[Herodotus, Histories 1.98-99]
This is clearly a fantastic description, but it may contain an element of truth. The seven walls may in fact be a
ziggurat, a multi-storied temple tower that was common in the ancient Near East. This explanation, however, is far from certain. Only archaeology will be able to offer a reliable description of ancient Ecbatana, but since most of the site is currently overbuilt by modern Hamadân, this will be difficult.
The Greek historian
Polybius of Megalopolis offers probably the best available description of the city (
World history 10.27.5-13). He writes that the city was richer and more beautiful than all other cities in the world; although it had no town wall, the citadel had impressive fortifications. This confirms Herodotus' words that the Medes were 'to dwell round about the wall', but Polybius offers more plausible dimensions: the circumference of the citadel was 1,300 meters. He also states that the builders used cedar and cypress wood, which was covered with silver and gold. The roof tiles, columns and ceilings were plated with silver and gold. This sounds like a credible description of an oriental palace, like
Persepolis.
When the Persian king
Cyrus the Great, a member of the Persian
Achaemenid dynasty, had overthrown the Median empire in 550 BCE, he captured Ecbatana. The text known as the
Chronicle of Nabonidus states:
King Astyages called up his troops and marched against Cyrus, king of Anš
an [i.e., Persia], in order to meet him in battle. The army of Astyages revolted against him and in fetters they delivered him to Cyrus. Cyrus marched against the country Ecbatana; the royal residence he seized; silver, gold, other valuables of the country Ecbatana he took as booty and brought to Anš
an.
According to the Greek historian
Xenophon of Athens (c.430-c.355), Ecbatana became the summer residence of the Achaemenid kings (
Anabasis 3.5.15). It was a beautiful site on a fertile plain, near the slopes of Mount Elvand (or Helvand). In December 522, the Median rebel
Phraortes reoccupied Ecbatana and made it his capital; he was defeated, however, by the Persian king
Darius I the Great (May 521). He celebrated this event with a large relief and an inscription along the road from
Babylon to Ecbatana (the famous
Behistun inscription).
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<CENTER>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-2]The "lion of Ecbatana"[/SIZE][/FONT]</CENTER></TD><TD>
An
inscription mentions that king
Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358) built a palace in Ecbatana. Greek sources mention temples dedicated to the goddess Aenê (probably Anahita) and the goddess of healing, which the Greeks called Asclepius. This shrine was perhaps destroyed by the
Macedonian king
Alexander the Great, because the deity had allowed his friend
Hephaestion to die in Ecbatana (324). The famous 'lion of Ecbatana', which rests on a small hilltop just outside the city center, is believed by some scholars to have been part of Hephaestion's sepulchral monument, but this is probably incorrect. Earlier, Alexander had had his general
Parmenion killed in the capital of Media (330).
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<CENTER>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-2]The terrace wall[/SIZE][/FONT]</CENTER></TD><TD vAlign=top width="60%" height=2>
Later, Ecbatana was one of the capitals of the
Seleucid and the
Parthian empire, sometimes called
Epiphaneia. Recent excavations have brought to light a residential area from the Parthian age, which included large houses (18 x 18 meters) that may have been used by soldiers. The terrace wall was 9 meters high and contained an aqueduct.
Twelve kilometers southwest of Hamadan is Gandj Nameh, where two inscriptions were discovered. Pictures of the excvations of Ecbatana and the Hamadân museum can be found here.
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