Ecbatana

Originally the capital of the Median Empire and later a key city in the Persian, Seleucid, and Parthian empires. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), located in the Zagros Mountains directly east of central Mesopotamia, was first erected by the early Median ruler Deioces in the seventh century b. c. “Deioces’ first act was to command his subjects to build a palace worthy of a king,” Herodotus claims.

The Medes complied. They built a large and well-defended palace on a site he himself indicated. . . . Deioces [then] put pressure on the Medes to build a single great city to which, as the capital of the country, all other towns were to be held of secondary importance. Again they complied, and the city now known as Ecbatana was built, a place of great size and strength fortified by concentric walls, these so planned that each successive circle was higher than the one below it by the height of the battlements. . . . The circles are seven in number, and the innermost contains the royal palace and treasury. .. . The battlements of the five outer rings are painted in different colors, the first white, the second black, the third crimson, the fourth blue, the fifth orange; the battlements of the two inner rings are plated with silver and gold respectively. (Histories 1.98-99)

Modern scholars suspect that Herodotus’s description of Ecbatana, which he never saw in person, may be partly fanciful. The concentric battlements rising in height may be a garbled account of a ziggurat, a structure common to cities of the region in that era. Unfortunately, the truth may never be known. Modern Hamadan almost completely overlays ancient Ecbatana, so very little archaeological work has been done there, and the prospect of future digs remains uncertain. Herodotus’s mention of silver and gold does square with other ancient accounts of Ecbatana, which say that its palace was splendidly decorated with these precious metals. What is more certain is that after the fall of Media, the Persian kings used Ecbatana as their summer residence, and the city served as a capital under the Seleucids and the Parthians.

See Also: Deioces; Median Empire; Persian Empire