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περιστέλλοντας, ‘attending to this (town), &c.’; Deioces is described as carrying out a kind of συνοίκισις. Ἀγβάτανα is usually identified with Hamadan, ‘where the passes of Mount Zagros emerge, uniting Iran to the basins of the Euphrates and Tigris’ (Maspero, iii. 326); this was certainly the later Ecbatana. Sir H. Rawlinson's view that the Ecbatana of H. lay to the north-east in Media Atropatene (Rawlinson ad loc.) has not been generally adopted. The name (Pers. Hangmatána) means ‘place of gathering’.
This description of the citadel is partly fact (Perrot et Chipiez v. 769). It was usual to have concentric lines of fortification; M. Dieulafoy has traced two only at Susa, but these were each very complex (ib. p. 767). H.'s ‘sevenfold’ defence, however, is an embellishment, due in part to a confusion with the Mesopotamian terracetemples or Ziggourats, e.g. the great temple of Nebo at Borsippa (181 n.), in part to the desire to bring in the sacred number ‘seven’. The colours of the seven circles are no doubt connected with the planets (Rawlinson quotes a parallel from the Persian poet Nizami, J. R. G. S. x. 127), but the order in H. is wrong. The effect was mainly produced by glazed bricks (cf. the frescoes in the Louvre from Susa), but also by a lavish use of the precious metals (cf. Polyb. x. 27. 10 for the riches of this very town, Ecbatana).
The circuit of Athens was about 60 stades (Thuc. ii. 13. 7); it is the citadel (99. 1) which is compared to this. Diodorus (xvii. 110. 7) gives that of the town of Ecbatana as 250 stades. Some have seen in this passage a proof that H. had himself been at Ecbatana; Kirchhoff argues from the comparison with Athens that the early books were written there (Introd. § 10 a); but neither of these inferences is probable.
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