Rhagae
An important city of ancient Media whose remains, mod. Persian
Raï,
are still pointed out about five miles southeast of Teheran. The city appears as
Ῥάγαι in Arrian's
Anab. iii. 20 Anab., 2.It is probable,
moreover, that on the site of the original city destroyed by earthquake,
Seleucos Nicator founded
Ῥάγεια or
Ῥάγα, called also
Εὐρωπός (Strabo, pp. 514,
524; see also Ptolemy, 6, 5, 4). In the Old Persian Inscriptions (bk. ii. 72; iii. 2) Ragā is the name of a province; compare
Ῥαγιανὴ Μηδία of Isidor of Charax. As a city,
Ragha is twice
mentioned in the Avesta, Vd. i. 16; Ys. xix. 18; and also several times by later Persian and
Mohammedan writers, being specially connected with the name of
Zoroaster (q.v.), apparently as his birthplace. There are a number of
allusions to
Rages in the Apocryphal Scriptures (Judith, i. 5, 15; Tobit, i.
14; v. 5; vi. 10). The fate of this once prosperous city, which was destroyed in the Parthian
wars, rebuilt anew as Assacia under the Arsacid rulers, flourishing later as
Rai, but finally in the twelfth century destroyed by the Tartars, and now lying
in interesting ruins, affords an instructive lesson taught by the records of the past.
