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Ecbatana (Old Persian: Ha?gmatana, written Agbatana in Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 and Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, Agámtanu by Nabonidos, and Agamatanu at Behistun; modern Hamadan, Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
) (literally: the place of gathering) is supposed to be the capital of Astyages
Astyages

Astyages ; spelled by Herodotus as Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian language: I?tumegu), was the last king of the Medes, r....
 (Istuvegü), which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
 in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC).

The Greeks supposed it to be the capital of Media
Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, and ascribed its foundation to Deioces
Deioces

Deioces, D?joc?s, Deiokes or Diyako was a Prince and the first king of the Medes. He united seven Median tribes and became their Judge and leader, beginning in 701 BC....
 (the Daiukku of the cuneiform inscriptions), who is said to have surrounded his palace in it with seven concentric walls of different colours.

So far no evidence of Median existence in Hagmatana hill has been attested.






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Hamadan
Rython Boz
Ecbatana (Old Persian: Ha?gmatana, written Agbatana in Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 and Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, Agámtanu by Nabonidos, and Agamatanu at Behistun; modern Hamadan, Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
) (literally: the place of gathering) is supposed to be the capital of Astyages
Astyages

Astyages ; spelled by Herodotus as Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian language: I?tumegu), was the last king of the Medes, r....
 (Istuvegü), which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
 in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC).

The Greeks supposed it to be the capital of Media
Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, and ascribed its foundation to Deioces
Deioces

Deioces, D?joc?s, Deiokes or Diyako was a Prince and the first king of the Medes. He united seven Median tribes and became their Judge and leader, beginning in 701 BC....
 (the Daiukku of the cuneiform inscriptions), who is said to have surrounded his palace in it with seven concentric walls of different colours.

So far no evidence of Median existence in Hagmatana hill has been attested. The only evidence observed in the area belongs to the Parthian
Parthian

Parthian may be:A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern Iran* Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language* Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by Parthian horsemen...
 era afterwards. There is no mention of Hagmatana/Ecbatana in Assyria
Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
n sources at all. Some scholars have suggested the Sagbita/Sagbat frequently mentioned in Assyrian texts in fact has been an earlier form of the Ecbatana/Hagmatana mentioned in later Greek and Achaemenid sources, as Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian

Indo-Iranian can refer to:* Indo-Iranian languages* Prehistoric Indo-Iranians * Indo-European languages* Proto-Indo-Iranian religion* Proto-Indo-Iranian language...
 /s/ turned into /h/ in many Iranian languages
Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
. Sagbita mentioned by Assyrian sources was located in proximity of cities of Kishesim (Kar-Nergal) and Harhar (Kar-Sharrukin) . Under the Persian kings, Ecbatana, situated at the foot of Mount Alvand, became a summer residence. Later, it became the capital of the Parthia
Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
n kings.

Sir Henry Rawlinson attempted to prove that there was a second and older Ecbatana in Media Atropatene
Atropatene

Atropatene or Media Atropatene was an ancient kingdom established in the 4th century BC in modern Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan....
 on the site of the modern Takht-i-Suleiman
Takht-i-Suleiman

For the similarly named locations see Takht-e-Sulaiman in Balochistan , and Sulayman Mountain near Osh, Kyrgyzstan.Takht-e Soleyman, is an archaeological site in West Azarbaijan, Iran....
, but the cuneiform texts imply that there was only one city of the name, and Takht-i Suleiman is the Gazaca
Ganzak

Ganzak was the capital of the ancient state of Matiene in northwest Persia. It was sacked by Heraclius in 622 AD and the fire temple and sanctuary of Adur Gushnasp was destroyed....
 of classical geography. Ecbatana was the main mint of the Parthians, it produced drachm, tetradrachm, and assorted bronze
Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon....
 denominations. It is also mentioned in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 (Ezra
Book of Ezra

The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew language Tanakh. It is the record of events occurring at the close of the Babylonian captivity....
, vi. 2).

Ecbatana/Hamedan (Iran) is not to be confused with Ecbatana/Hamath (Syria) where Cambyses II is supposed to have died according to Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
.

See also

  • Cities of the Ancient Near East
    Cities of the ancient Near East

    Uru was the Sumerian language term for a city or city state, written with the cuneiform ideogram URU .In Akkadian language and Hittite orthography, URU became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g....


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