Produced by David Widger
THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES
OF THE
ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD;
OR,
THE HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHALDAEA, ASSYRIA
BABYLON, MEDIA, PERSIA, PARTHIA, AND SASSANIAN,
OR NEW PERSIAN EMPIRE.
BY
GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A.,
CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOLUME II.
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
THE THIRD MONARCHY.
MEDIA.
[Illustration: MAP]
CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.
Along the eastern flank of the great Mesopotamian lowland, curving
round it on the north, and stretching beyond it to the south and the
south-east, lies a vast elevated region, or highland, no portion of
which appears to be less than 3000 feet above the sea-level. This
region may be divided, broadly, into two tracts, one consisting of lofty
mountainous ridges, which form its outskirts on the north and on the
west; the other, in the main a high flat table-land, extending from the
foot of the mountain chains, southward to the Indian Ocean, and eastward
to the country of the Afghans. The western mountain-country consists,
as has been already observed, of six or seven parallel ridges, having
a direction nearly from the north-west to the south-east, enclosing
between them, valleys of great fertility, and well watered by a large
number of plentiful and refreshing streams. This district was known to
the ancients as Zagros, while in modern geography it bears the names of
Kurdistan and Luristan. It has always been inhabited by a multitude of
warlike tribes, and has rarely formed for any long period a portion
of any settled monarchy. Full of torrents, of deep ravines, or rocky
summits, abrupt and almost inaccessible; containing but few passes, and
those narrow and easily defensible; secure, moreover, owing to the rigor
of its climate, from hostile invasion during more than half the year;
it has defied all attempts to effect its permanent subjugation, whether
made by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Parthians, or Turks, and remains
to this day as independent of the great powers in its neighborhood as it
was when the Assyrian armies first penetrated its recesses. Nature seems
to have constructed it to be a nursery of hardy and vigorous men, a
stumbling-block to conquerors, a thorn in the side of every powerful
empire which arises in this part of the great eastern continent.
The northern mountain country--known to modern geographers as Eiburz--is
a tract of far less importance. It is not composed, like Zagros, of
a number of parallel chains, but consists of a single lofty ridge,
furrowed by ravines and valleys, from which spurs are thrown
out, running in general at right angles to its axis. Its width is
comparatively slight; and instead of giving birth to numerous large
rivers, it forms only a small number of insignificant streams, often dry
in summer, which have short courses, being soon absorbed either by the
Caspian or the Desert. Its most striking feature is the snowy peak of
Demavend, which impends over Teheran, and appears to be the highest
summit in the part of Asia west of the Himalayas.
The elevated plateau which stretches from the foot of those two mountain
regions to the south and east is, for the most part, a flat sandy
desert, incapable of sustaining more than a sparse and scanty
population. The northern and western portions are, however, less arid
than the east and south, being watered to some distance by the streams
that descend from Zagros and Elburz, and deriving fertility also from
the spring rains. Some of the rivers which flow from Zagros on this side
are large and strong. One, the Kizil-Uzen, reaches the Caspian. Another,
the Zenderud, fertilizes a large district near Isfahan. A third, the
Bendamir, flows by Persepolis and terminates in a sheet of water of
some size--lake Bakhtigan. A tract thus intervenes between the mountain
regions and the desert which, though it cannot be called fertile, is
fairly productive, and can support a large settled population. This
forms the chief portion of the region which the ancients called Media,
as being the country inhabited by the race on whose history we are about
to enter.
Media, however, included, besides this, another tract of considerable
size and importance. At the north-western angle of the region above
described, in the corner whence the two great chains branch out to
the south and to the east, is a tract composed almost entirely of
mountains, which the Greeks called Atropatene, and which is now known
as Azerbijan. This district lies further to the north than the rest of
Media, being in the same parallels with the lower part of the Caspian
Sea. It comprises the entire basin of Lake Urumiyeh, together with the
country intervening between that basin and the high mountain chain which
curves round the south-western corner of the Caspian, It is a region
generally somewhat sterile, but containing a certain quantity of very,
fertile territory, more particularly in the Urumiyeh basin, and towards
the mouth of the river Araxes.
The boundaries of Media are given somewhat differently by different
writers, and no doubt they actually varied at different periods; but the
variations were not great, and the natural limits, on three sides at any
rate, may be laid down with tolerable precision. Towards the north the
boundary was at first the mountain chain closing in on that side the
Urumiyeh basin, after which it seems to have been held that the true
limit was the Araxes, to its entrance on the low country, and then the
mountain chain west and south of the Caspian. Westward, the line of
demarcation may be best regarded as, towards the south, running along
the centre of the Zagros region; and, above this, as formed by that
continuation of the Zagros chain which separates the Urumiyeh from
the Van basin. Eastward, the boundary was marked by the spur from the
Elburz, across which lay the pass known as the Pylse Caspise, and below
this by the great salt desert, whose western limit is nearly in the
same longitude. Towards the south there was no marked line or natural
boundary; and it is difficult to say with any exactness how much of the
great plateau belonged to Media and how much to Persia. Having regard,
however, to the situation of Hamadan, which, as the capital, should have
been tolerably central, and to the general account which historians and
geographers give of the size of Media, we may place the southern limit
with much probability about the line of the thirty-second parallel,
which is nearly the present boundary between Irak and Fars.
The shape of Media has been called a square; but it is rather a
long parallelogram, whose two principal sides face respectively the
north-east and the south-west, while the ends or shorter sides front to
the south-east and to the northwest. Its length in its greater direction
is about 600 miles, and its width about 250 miles. It must thus contain
nearly 150,000 square miles, an area considerably larger than that of
Assyria and Chaldaea put together, and quite sufficient to constitute a
state of the first class, even according to the ideas of modern Europe.
It is nearly one-fifth more than the area of the British Islands, and
half as much again as that of Prussia, or of peninsular Italy. It equals
three fourths of France, or three fifths of Germany. It has, moreover,
the great advantage of compactness, forming a single solid mass, with no
straggling or outlying portions; and it is strongly defended on almost
every side by natural barriers offering great difficulties to an
invader.
In comparison with the countries which formed the seats of the two
monarchies already described, the general character of the Median
territory is undoubtedly one of sterility. The high table-land is
everywhere intersected by rocky ranges, spurs from Zagros, which have
a general direction from west to east, and separate the country into a
number of parallel broad valleys, or long plains, opening out into the
desert. The appearance of these ranges is almost everywhere bare, arid,
and forbidding. Above, they present to the eye huge masses of gray rock
piled one upon another; below, a slope of detritus, destitute of trees
or shrubs, and only occasionally nourishing a dry and scanty herbage.
The appearance of the plains is little superior; they are flat and
without undulations, composed in general of gravel or hard clay, and
rarely enlivened by any show of water; except for two months in
the spring, they exhibit to the eye a uniform brown expanse, almost
treeless, which impresses the traveller with a feeling of sadness and
weariness. Even in Azerbijan, which is one of the least arid portions
of the territory, vast tracks consist of open undulating downs, desolate
and sterile, bearing only a coarse withered grass and a few stunted
bushes.
Still there are considerable exceptions to this general aspect of
desolation. In the worst parts of the region there is a time after
the spring rains when nature puts on a holiday dress, and the country
becomes gay and cheerful. The slopes at the base of the rocky ranges are
tinged with an emerald green: a richer vegetation springs up over the
plains, which are covered with a fine herbage or with a variety of
crops; the fruit trees which surround the villages burst out into the
most luxuriant blossom; the roses come into bloom, and their perfume
everywhere fills the air. For the two months of April and May the
whole face of the country is changed, and a lovely verdure replaces the
ordinary dull sterility.
In a certain number of more favored spots beauty and fertility are
found during nearly the whole of the year. All round the shores of Lake
Urumiyeh, more especially in the rich plain of Miyandab at its southern
extremity, along the valleys of the Aras, the Kizil-uzen, and the
Jaghetu, in the great valley of Linjan, fertilized by irrigation from
the Zenderud, in the Zagros valleys, and in various other places,
there is an excellent soil which produces abundantly with very slight
cultivation.
The general sterility of Media arises from the scantiness of the water
supply. It has but few rivers, and the streams that it possesses run for
the most part in deep and narrow valleys sunk below the general level of
the country, so that they cannot be applied at all widely to purposes of
irrigation. Moreover, some of them are, unfortunately, impregnated
with salt to such an extent that they are altogether useless for
this purpose; and indeed, instead of fertilizing, spread around
them desolation and barrenness. The only Median streams which are
of sufficient importance to require description are the Aras, the
Kizil-Uzen, the Jaghetu, the Aji-Su and the Zenderud, or river of
Isfahan.
The Aras is only very partially a Median stream. It rises from several
sources in the mountain tract between Kars and Erzeroum, and runs with
a generally eastern direction through Armenia to the longitude of Mount
Ararat, where it crosses the fortieth parallel and begins to trend
southward, flowing along the eastern side of Ararat in a south-easterly
direction, nearly to the Julfa ferry on the high road from Erivan to
Tabriz. From this point it runs only a little south of east to long.
46° 30’ E. from Greenwich, when it makes almost a right angle and runs
directly north-east to its junction with the Kur at Djavat. Soon after
this it curves to the south, and enters the Caspian by several mouths in
lat. 39° 10’ nearly. The Aras is a considerable stream almost from its
source. At Hassan-Kaleh, less than twenty miles from Erzeroum, where
the river is forded in several branches, the water reaches to the
saddle-girths. At Keupri-Kieui, not much lower, the stream is crossed
by a bridge of seven arches. At the Julfa ferry it is fifty yards wide,
and runs with a strong current. At Megree, thirty miles further down,
its width is eighty yards. In spring and early summer the stream
receives enormous accessions from the spring rains and the melting of
the snows, which produce floods that often cause great damage to the
lands and villages along the valley. Hence the difficulty of maintaining
bridges over the Aras, which was noted as early as the time of Augustus,
and is attested by the ruins of many such structures remaining along its
course. Still, there are at the present day at least three bridges over
the stream--one, which has been already mentioned, at Keupri-Kieui,
another a little above Nakshivan, and the third at Khudoperinski,
a little below Megree. The length of the Aras, including only main
windings, is 500 miles.
The Kizil-Uzen, or (as it is called in the lower part of its course) the
Sefid-Rud, is a stream of less size than the Aras, but more important
to Media, within which lies almost the whole of its basin. It drains a
tract of 180 miles long by 150 broad before bursting through the Elburz
mountain chain, and descending upon the low country which skirts the
Caspian. Rising in Persian Kurdistan almost from the foot of Zagros,
it runs in a meandering course with a general direction of north-east
through that province into the district of Khamseh, where it suddenly
sweeps round and flows in a bold curve at the foot of lofty and
precipitous rocks, first northwest and then north, nearly to Miana, when
it doubles back upon itself, and turning the flank of the Zenjan range
runs with a course nearly south-east to Menjil, after which it resumes
its original direction of north-east, and, rushing down the pass of
Budbar, crosses Ghilan to the Caspian. Though its source is in direct
distance no more than 320 miles from its mouth, its entire length, owing
to its numerous curves and meanders, is estimated at 490 miles. It is a
considerable stream, forded with difficulty, even in the dry season, as
high up as Karagul, and crossed by a bridge of three wide arches before
its junction with the Garongu river near Miana. In spring and early
summer it is an impetuous torrent, and can only be forded within a short
distance of its source.
The Jaghetu and the Aji-Su are the two chief rivers of the Urumiyeh
basin. The Jaghetu rises from the foot of the Zagros chain, at a very
little distance from the source of the Kizil-Uzen. It collects the
streams from the range of hills which divides the Kizil-Uzen basin from
that of Lake Urumiyeh, and flows in a tolerably straight course first
north and then north-west to the south-eastern shore of the lake. Side
by side with it for some distance flows the smaller stream of the Tatau,
formed by torrents from Zagros; and between them, towards their mouths,
is the rich plain of Miyandab, easily irrigated from the two streams,
the level of whose beds is above that of the plain, and abundantly
productive even under the present system of cultivation. The Aji-Su
reaches the lake from the north-east. It rises from Mount Sevilan,
within sixty miles of the Caspian, and flows with a course which is at
first nearly due south, then north-west, and finally south-west, past
the city of Tabriz, to the eastern shore of the lake, which it enters in
lat. 37° 50’. The waters of the Aji-Su are, unfortunately, salt, and it
is therefore valueless for purposes of irrigation.
The Zenderud or river of Isfahan rises from the eastern flank of the
Kuh-i-Zerd (Yellow Mountain), a portion of the Bakhti-yari chain, and,
receiving a number of tributaries from the same mountain district, flows
with a course which is generally east or somewhat north of east, past
the great city of Isfahan--so long the capital of Persia--into the
desert country beyond, where it is absorbed in irrigation. Its entire
course is perhaps not more than 120 or 130 miles; but running chiefly
through a plain region, and being naturally a stream of large size,
it is among the most valuable of the Median rivers, its waters being
capable of spreading fertility, by means of a proper arrangement of
canals, over a vast extent of country, and giving to this part of Iran a
sylvan character, scarcely found elsewhere on the plateau.
It will be observed that of these streams there is not one which reaches
the ocean. All the rivers of the great Iranic plateau terminate in lakes
or inland seas, or else lose themselves in the desert. In general the
thirsty sand absorbs, within a short distance of their source, the
various brooks and streams which flow south and east into the desert
from the northern and western mountain chains, without allowing them to
collect into rivers or to carry fertility far into the plain region. The
the river of Isfahan forms the only exception to this rule within the
limits of the ancient Media. All its other important streams, as has
been seen, flow either into the Caspian or into the great lake of
Urumiyeh.
That lake itself now requires our attention. It is an oblong basin,
stretching in its greater direction from N.N.W. to S.S. E., a distance
of above eighty miles, with an average width of about twenty-five miles.
On its eastern side a remarkable peninsula, projecting far into its
waters, divides it into two portions of very unequal size--a northern
and a southern.
The southern one, which is the largest of the two, is diversified
towards its centre by a group of islands, some of which are of a
considerable size. The lake, like others in this part of Asia, is
several thousand feet above the sea level. Its waters are heavily
impregnated with salt, resembling those of the Dead Sea. No fish can
live in them. When a storm sweeps over their surface it only raises the
waves a few feet; and no sooner is it passed than they rapidly subside
again into a deep, heavy, death-like sleep. The lake is shallow, nowhere
exceeding four fathoms, and averaging about two fathoms--a depth which,
however, is rarely attained within two miles of the land. The water is
pellucid. To the eye it has the deep blue color of some of the northern
Italian lakes, whence it was called by the Armenians the Kapotan Zow or
“Blue Sea.”
According to the Armenian geography, Media contained eleven districts;
Ptolemy makes the number eight; but the classical geographers in
general are contented with the twofold division already indicated,
and recognized at the constituent parts of Media only Atropatene (now
Azerbijan) and Media Magna, a tract which nearly corresponds with the
two provinces of Irak Ajemj and Ardelan. Of the minor subdivisions there
are but two or three which seem to deserve any special notice. One of
these is Ehagiana, or the tract skirting the Elburz Mountains from the
vicinity of the Kizil-Uzen (or Sefid-Eud) to the Caspian Gates, a long
and narrow slip, fairly productive, but excessively hot in summer, which
took its name from the important city of Rhages. Another is Nissea, a
name which the Medes seem to have carried with them from their early
eastern abodes, and to have applied to some high upland plains west
of the main chain of Zagros, which were peculiarly favorable to the
breeding of horses. As Alexander visited these pastures on his way from
Susa to Ecbatana, they must necessarily have lain to the south of the
latter city. Most probably they are to be identified with the modern
plains of Kbawah and Alishtar, between Behistun and Khorramabad, which
are even now considered to afford the best summer pasturage in Persia.
It is uncertain whether any of these divisions were known in the time of
the great Median Empire. They are not constituted in any case by marked
natural lines or features. On the whole it is perhaps most probable
that the main division--that into Media Magna and Media Atropatene--was
ancient, Astro-patene being the old home of the Medes, and Media Magna a
later conquest; but the early political geography of the country is too
obscure to justify us in laying down even this as certain. The minor
political divisions are still less distinguishable in the darkness of
those ancient times.
From the consideration of the districts which composed the Median
territory, we may pass to that of their principal cities, some of which
deservedly obtained a very great celebrity. Tho most important of all
were the two Ecbatanas--the northern and the southern--which seem to
have stood respectively in the position of metropolis to the northern
and the southern province. Next to these may be named Rhages, which was
probably from early times a very considerable place; while in the
third rank may be mentioned Bagistan--rather perhaps a palace than
a town--Concobar, Adrapan, Aspadan, Charax, Kudrus, Hyspaostes,
Urakagabarna, etc.
The southern Ecbatana or Agbatana--which the Medes and Persians
themselves knew as Hagmatan--was situated, as we learn from Polybius and
Diodorus, on a plan at the foot of Mont Orontes, a little to the east of
the Zagros range. The notices of these authors, combined with those of
Eratosthenes, Isidore, Pliny, Arrian, and others, render it as nearly
certain as possible that the site was that of the modern town of
Hamadan, the name of which is clearly but a slight corruption of the
true ancient appellation. [PLATE I., Fig. 2.] Mount Orontes is to
be recognized in the modern Elwend or Erwend--a word etymologically
identical with _Oront-es_--which is a long and lofty mountains standing
out like a buttress from the Zagros range, with which it is connected
towards the north-west, while on every other side it stands isolated,
sweeping boldly down upon the flat country at its base. Copious streams
descend from the mountain on every side, more particularly to the
north-east, where the plain is covered with a carpet of the most
luxuriant verdure, diversified with rills, and ornamented with numerous
groves of large and handsome forest trees. It is here, on ground sloping
slightly away from the roots of the mountain, that the modern town,
which lies directly at its foot, is built. The ancient city, if we may
believe Diodorus, did not approach the mountain within a mile or a mile
and a half. At any rate, if it began where Hamadan now stands, it most
certainly extended very much further into the plain. We need not suppose
indeed that it had the circumference, or even half the circumference,
which the Sicilian romancer assigns to it, since his two hundred and
fifty stades would give a probable area of fifty square miles, more than
double that of London! Ecbatana is not likely to have been at its most
flourishing period a larger city than Nineveh; and we have already seen
that Nineveh covered a space, within the walls, of not more than 1800
English acres.
[Illustration: PLATE I.]
The character of the city and of its chief edifices has, unfortunately,
to be gathered almost entirely from unsatisfactory authorities. Hitherto
it has been found possible in these volumes to check and correct the
statements of ancient writers, which are almost always exaggerated,
by an appeal to the incontrovertible evidence of modern surveys
and explorations. But the Median capital has never yet attracted a
scientific expedition. The travellers by whom it has been visited have
reported so unfavorably of its character as a field of antiquarian
research that scarcely a spadeful of soil has been dug, either in the
city or in its vicinity, with a view to recover traces of the ancient
buildings. Scarcely any remains of antiquity are apparent. As the site
has never been deserted, and the town has thus been subjected for nearly
twenty-two centuries to the destructive ravages of foreign conquerors,
and the still more injurious plunderings of native builders, anxious
to obtain materials for new edifices at the least possible cost and
trouble, the ancient structures have everywhere disappeared from sight,
and are not even indicated by mounds of a sufficient size to attract the
attention of common observers. Scientific explorers have consequently
been deterred from turning their energies in this direction; more
promising sites have offered and still offer themselves; and it is as
yet uncertain whether the plan of the old town might not be traced
and the position of its chief edifices fixed by the means of careful
researches conducted by fully competent persons. In this dearth of
modern materials we have to depend entirely upon the classical writers,
who are rarely trustworthy in their descriptions or measurements, and
who, in this instance, labor under the peculiar disadvantage of being
mere reporters of the accounts given by others.
Ecbatana was chiefly celebrated for the magnificence of its palace,
a structure ascribed by Diodorus to Semiramis, but most probably
constructed originally by Cyaxares, and improved, enlarged, and
embellished by the Achaemenian monarchs. According to the judicious
and moderate Polybius, who prefaces his account by a protest against
exaggeration and over-coloring, the circumference of the building
was seven stades, or 1420 yards, somewhat more than four fifths of an
English mile. This size, which a little exceeds that of the palace
mound at Susa, while it is in its turn a little exceeded by the palatial
platform at Persepolis, may well be accepted as probably close to
the truth. Judging, however, from the analogy of the above-mentioned
palaces, we must conclude that the area thus assigned to the royal
residence was far from being entirely covered with buildings. One half
of the space, perhaps more, would be occupied by large open courts,
paved probably with marble, surrounding the various blocks of buildings
and separating them from one another. The buildings themselves may be
conjectured to have resembled those of the Achaemenian monarchs at Susa
and Persepolis, with the exception, apparently, that the pillars, which
formed their most striking characteristic, were for the most part of
wood rather than o£ stone. Polybius distinguishes the pillars into
two classes, those of the main buildings, and those which skirted the
courts, from which it would appear that at Ecbatana the courts were
surrounded by colonnades, as they were commonly in Greek and Roman
houses. These wooden pillars, all either of cedar or of cypress,
supported beams of a similar material, which crossed each other at right
angles, leaving square spaces between, which were then filled in with
woodwork. Above the whole a roof was placed, sloping at an angle, and
composed (as we are told) of silver plates in the shape of tiles. The
pillars, beams, and the rest of the woodwork were likewise coated with
thin laminse of the precious metals, even gold being used for this
purpose to a certain extent.
Such seems to have been the character of the true ancient Median palace,
which served probably as a model to Darius and Xerxes when they designed
their great palatial edifices at the more southern capitals. In the
additions which the palace received under the Achaemenian kings, stone
pillars may have been introduced; and hence probably the broken shafts
and bases, so nearly resembling the Persepolitan, one of which Sir E.
Ker Porter saw in the immediate neighborhood of Hamadan on his visit
to that place in 1818. [PLATE I., Fig. 1.] But to judge from the
description of Polybius, an older and ruder style of architecture
prevailed in the main building, which depended for its effect not on the
beauty of architectural forms, but on the richness and costliness of the
material. A pillar architecture, so far as appears, began in this part
of Asia with the Medes, who, however, were content to use the more
readily obtained and more easily worked material of wood; while the
Persians afterwards conceived the idea of substituting for these
inartificial props the slender and elegant stone shafts which formed the
glory of their grand edifices.
At a short distance from the palace was the “Acra,” or citadel, an
artificial structure, if we may believe Polybius, and a place of very
remarkable strength. Here probably was the treasury, from which Darius
Codomanus carried off 7000 talents of silver, when he fled towards
Bactria for fear of Alexander. And here, too, may have been the Record
Office, in which were deposited the royal decrees and other public
documents under the earlier Persian kings. Some travellers are of
opinion that a portion of the ancient structure still exists; and there
is certainly a ruin on the outskirts of the modern town towards the
south, which is known to the natives as “the inner fortress,” and which
may not improbably occupy some portion of the site whereon the original
citadel stood. But the remains of building which now exist are certainly
not of an earlier date than the era of Parthian supremacy, and they can
therefore throw no light on the character of the old Median stronghold.
It may be thought perhaps that the description which Herodotus gives
of the building called by him “the palace of Deioces” should be here
applied, and that by its means we might obtain an exact notion of the
original structure. But the account of this author is wholly at variance
with the natural features of the neighborhood, where there is no such
conical hill as he describes, but only a plain surrounded by mountains.
It seems, therefore, to be certain that either his description is a pure
myth, or that it applies to another city, the Ecbatana of the northern
province. It is doubtful whether the Median capital was at any time
surrounded with walls. Polybius expressly declares that it was an
unwalled place in his day and there is some reason to suspect that it
had always been in this condition. The Medes and Persians appear to have
been in general content to establish in each town a fortified citadel or
stronghold, round which the houses were clustered, without superadding
the further defence of a town wall. Ecbatana accordingly seems never to
have stood a siege. When the nation which held it was defeated in the
open field, the city (unlike Babylon and Nineveh) submitted to the
conqueror without a struggle. Thus the marvellous description in the
book of Judith, which is internally very improbable, would appear to be
entirely destitute of any, even the slightest, foundation in fact.
The chief city of northern Media, which bore in later times the names of
Gaza, Gazaca, or Canzaca, is thought to have also been called Ecbatana,
and to have been occasionally mistaken by the Greeks for the southern or
real capital. The description of Herodotus, which is irreconcilably
at variance with the local features of the Hamadan site, accords
sufficiently with the existing remains of a considerable city in the
province of Azerbijan; and it seems certainly to have been a city in
these parts which was called by Moses of Chorene “the second Ecbatana,
the seven-walled town.” The peculiarity of this place was its situation
on and about a conical hill which sloped gently down from its summit
to its base, and allowed of the interposition of seven circuits of wall
between the plain and the hill’s crest. At the top of the hill, within
the innermost circle of the defences, were the Royal Palace and
the treasuries; the sides of the hill were occupied solely by the
fortifications; and at the base, outside the circuit of the outermost
wall, were the domestic and other buildings which constituted the town.
According to the information received by Herodotus, the battlements
which crowned the walls were variously colored. Those of the outer
circle were white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of the
fourth blue, of the fifth orange, of the sixth silver, and of the
seventh gold. A pleasing or at any rate a striking effect was thus
produced--the citadel, which towered above the town, presenting to the
eye seven distinct rows of colors.
If there was really a northern as well as a southern Ecbatana, and if
the account of Herodotus, which cannot possibly apply to the southern
capital, may be regarded as truly describing the great city of the
north, we may with much probability fix the site of the northern town
at the modern Takht-i-Suleiman, in the upper valley of the Saruk, a
tributary of the Jaghetu. [PLATE I., Fig. 3.] Here alone in northern
Media are there important ruins occupying such a position as that which
Herodotus describes. Near the head of a valley in which runs the main
branch of the Saruk, at the edge of the hills which skirt it to the
north, there stands a conical mound projecting into the vale and rising
above its surface to the height of 150 feet. The geological formation of
the mound is curious in the extreme. It seems to owe its origin entirely
to a small lake, the waters of which are so strongly impregnated with
calcareous matter that wherever they overflow they rapidly form a
deposit which is as hard and firm as natural rock. If the lake was
originally on a level with the valley, it would soon have formed
incrustations round its edge, which every casual or permanent overflow
would have tended to raise; and thus, in the course of ages, the entire
hill may have been formed by a mere accumulation of petrefactions. The
formation would progress more or less rapidly according to the tendency
of the lake to overflow its bounds; which tendency must have been strong
until the water reached its present natural level--the level, probably,
of some other sheet of water in the hills, with which it is connected
by an underground siphon. The lake, which is of an irregular shape,
is about 300 paces in circumference. Its water, notwithstanding the
quantity of mineral matter held in solution, is exquisitely clear, and
not unpleasing to the taste. Formerly it was believed by the natives to
be unfathomable; but experiments made in 1837 showed the depth to be no
more than 156 feet.
The ruins which at present occupy this remarkable site consist of a
strong wall, guarded by numerous bastions and pierced by four gateways,
which runs round the brow of the hill in a slightly irregular ellipse,
of some interesting remains of buildings within this walled space, and
of a few insignificant traces of inferior edifices on the slope between
the plain and the summit. As it is not thought that any of these remains
are of a date anterior to the Sassanian kingdom, no description will be
given of them here. We are only concerned with the Median city, and that
has entirely disappeared. Of the seven walls, one alone is to be traced;
and even here the Median structure has perished, and been replaced by
masonry of a far later age. Excavations may hereafter bring, to light
some remnants of the original town, but at present research has done no
more than recover for us a forgotten site.
The Median city next in importance to the two Ecbatanas was Raga or
Rhages, near the Caspian Gates, almost at the extreme eastern limits of
the territory possessed by the Medes.
The great antiquity of this place is marked by its occurrence in the
Zendavesta among the primitive settlements of the Arians. Its celebrity
during the time of the Empire is indicated by the position which it
occupies in the romances of Tobit and Judith. It maintained its rank
under the Persians, and is mentioned by Darius Hystaspis as the scene of
the struggle which terminated the great Median revolt. The last Darius
seems to have sent thither his heavy baggage and the ladies of his
court, when he resolved to quit Ecbatana and fly eastward. It has been
already noticed that Rhages gave name to a district; and this district
maybe certainly identified with the long narrow tract of fertile
territory intervening between the Elburz mountain-range and the desert,
from about Kasvin to Khaar, or from long. 30° to 52° 30’. The exact site
of the city of Rhages within this territory is somewhat doubtful. All
accounts place it near the eastern extremity; and as there are in this
direction ruins of a town called Rhei or Rhey, it has been usual to
assume that they positively fix the locality. But similarity, or even
identity, of name is an insufficient proof of a site; and, in the
present instance, there are grounds for placing Rhages very much nearer
to the Caspian Gates than the position of Rhei. Arrian, whose accuracy
is notorious, distinctly states that from the Gates to Rhages was only a
single day’s march, and that Alexander accomplished the distance in that
time. Now from Rhei to the Girduni Surdurrah pass, which undoubtedly
represents the Pylae Cacpise of Arrian, is at least fifty miles, a
distance which no army could accomplish in less time than two days.
Rhages consequently must have been considerably to the east of
Rhei, about half-way between it and the celebrated pass which it was
considered to guard. Its probable position is the modern Kaleh Erij,
near Veramin, about 23 miles from the commencement of the Surdurrah
pass, where there are considerable remains of an ancient town.
In the same neighborhood with Rhages, but closer to the Straits, perhaps
on the site now occupied by the ruins known as Uewanukif, or possibly
even nearer to the foot of the pass, was the Median city of Charax, a
place not to be confounded with the more celebrated city called Gharax
Spasini, the birthplace of Dionysius the geographer, which was on the
Persian Gulf, at the mouth of the Tigris.
The other Median cities, whose position can be determined with an
approach to certainty, were in the western portion of the country, in
the range of Zagros, or in the fertile tract between that range and the
desert. The most important of these are Bagistan, Adrapan, Concobar, and
Aspadan.
Bagistan is described by Isidore as a “city situated on a hill, where
there was a pillar and a statue of Semiramis.” Diodorus has an account
of the arrival of Semiramis at the place, of her establishing a royal
park or paradise in the plain below the mountain, which was watered
by an abundant spring, of her smoothing the face of the rock where it
descended precipitously upon the low ground, and of her carving on the
surface thus obtained her own effigy, with an inscription in Assyrian
characters. The position assigned to Bagistan by both writers, and the
description of Diodorus, identify the place beyond a doubt with the now
famous Behistun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock,
and the scarped surface are still to be seen, through the supposed
figure of Semiramis, her pillar, and her inscription have disappeared.
[PLATE II., Fig. 1.] This remarkable spot, lying on the direct route
between Babylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusual combination of
a copious fountain, a rich plain, and a rock suitable for sculptures,
must have early attracted the attention of the great monarchs who
marched their armies through the Zagros range, as a place where they
might conveniently set up memorials of their exploits. The works of this
kind ascribed by the ancient writers to Semiramis were probably either
Assyrian or Babylonian, and (it is most likely) resembled the ordinary
monuments which the kings of Babylon and Nineveh delighted to erect
in countries newly conquered. The example set by the Mesopotamians was
followed by their Arian neighbors, when the supremacy passed into
their hands; and the famous mountain, invested by them with a sacred
character, was made to subserve and perpetuate their glory by receiving
sculptures and inscriptions which showed them to have become the lords
of Asia. The practice did not even stop here. When the Parthian kingdom
of the Arsacidee had established itself in these parts at the expense
of the Seleucidse, the rock was once more called upon to commemorate
the warlike triumphs of a new race. Gotarzes, the contemporary of the
Emperor Claudius, after defeating his rival Meherdates in the plain
between Behistun and Kermanshah, inscribed upon the mountain, which
already bore the impress of the great monarchs of Assyria and Persia, a
record of his recent victory.
[Illustration: PLATE II.]
The name of Adrapan occurs only in Isidore, who places it between
Bagistan and Ecbatana, at the distance of twelve schoeni--36 Roman or 34
British miles from the latter. It was, he says, the site of an ancient
palace belonging to Ecbatana, which Tigranes the Armenian had destroyed.
The name and situation sufficiently identify Adrapan with the modern
village of Arteman, which lies on the southern face of Elwend near
its base, and is well adapted for a royal residence. Here, during the
severest winter, when Hamadan and the surrounding country are buried in
snow, a warm and sunny climate is to be found; whilst in the summer
a thousand rills descending from Elwend diffuse around fertility
and fragrance. Groves of trees grow up in rich luxuriance from the
well-irrigated soil, whose thick foliage affords a welcome shelter from
the heat of the noonday sun. The climate, the gardens, and the manifold
blessings of the place are proverbial throughout Persia; and naturally
caused the choice of the site for a retired palace, to which the court
of Ecbatana might adjourn when either the summer heat and dust or the
winter cold made residence in the capital irksome.
In the neighborhood of Adrapan, on the road leading to Bagistan, stood
Concobar, which is undoubtedly the modern Kungawar, and perhaps the
Chavon of Diodorus. Here, according to the Sicilian historian, Semiramis
built a palace and laid out a paradise; and here, in the time of
Isidore, was a famous temple of Artemis. Colossal ruins crown the summit
of the acclivity on which the town of Kungawar stands, which may be the
remains of this latter building; but no trace has been found that can be
regarded as either Median or Assyrian.
The Median town of Aspadan, which is mentioned by no writer but Ptolemy,
would scarcely deserve notice here, if it were not for its modern
celebrity. Aspadan, corrupted into Isfahan, became the capital of
Persia, under the Sen kings, who rendered it one of the most magnificent
cities of Asia. It is uncertain whether it existed at all in the time
of the great Median empire. If so, it was, at best, an outlying town of
little consequence on the extreme southern confines of the territory,
where it abutted upon Persia proper. The district wherein it lay was
inhabited by the Median tribe of the Parastaceni.
Upon the whole it must be allowed that the towns of Media were few
and of no great account. The Medes did not love to congregate in large
cities, but preferred to scatter themselves in villages over their
broad and varied territory. The protection of walls, necessary for
the inhabitants of the low Mesopotamian regions, was not required by a
people whose country was full of natural fastnesses to which they could
readily remove on the approach of danger. Excepting the capital and
the two important cities of Gazaca and Rhages, the Median towns were
insignificant. Even those cities themselves were probably of moderate
dimensions, and had little of the architectural splendor which gives
so peculiar an interest to the towns of Mesopotamia. Their principal
buildings were in a frail and perishable material, unsuited to bear the
ravages of time; they have consequently altogether disappeared, and in
the whole of Media modern researches have failed to bring to light a
single edifice which can be assigned with any show of probability to the
period of the Empire.
The plan adopted in former portions of this work makes it necessary,
before concluding this chapter, to glance briefly at the character of
the various countries and districts by which Media was bordered--the
Caspian district upon the north, Armenia upon the north-west, the Zagros
region and Assyria upon the west, Persia proper upon the south, and upon
the east Sagartia and Parthia.
North and north-east of the mountain range which under different names
skirts the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and curves round
its south-western corner, lies a narrow but important strip of
territory--the modern Ghilan and Mazanderan. [PLATE II., Fig. 2.] This
is a most fertile region, well watered and richly wooded, and forms one
of the most valuable portions of the modern kingdom of Persia. At first
it is a low flat tract of deep alluvial soil, but little raised above
the level of the Caspian; gradually however it rises into swelling
hills which form the supports of the high mountains that shut in this
sheltered region, a region only to be reached by a very few passes over
or through them. The mountains are clothed on this side nearly to their
summit with dwarf oaks, or with shrubs and brushwood; while, lower
down, their flanks are covered with forests of elms, cedars, chestnuts,
beeches, and cypress trees. The gardens and orchards of the natives
are of the most superb character; the vegetation is luxuriant; lemons,
oranges, peaches, pomegranates, besides other fruits, abound; rice,
hemp, sugar-canes, mulberries are cultivated with success; vines grow
wild; and the valleys are strewn with flowers of rare fragrance, among
which may be noted the rose, the honeysuckle, and the sweetbrier.
Nature, however, with her usual justice, has balanced these
extraordinary advantages with peculiar drawbacks; the tiger, unknown
in any other part of Western Asia, here lurks in the thickets, ready to
spring at any moment on the unwary traveller; inundations are frequent,
and carry desolation far and wide; the waters, which thus escape from
the river beds, stagnate in marshes, and during the summer and autumn
heats pestilential exhalations arise, which destroy the stranger,
and bring even the acclimatized native to the brink of the grave. The
Persian monarch chooses the southern rather than the northern side of
the mountains for the site of his capital, preferring the keen winter
cold and dry summer heat of the high and almost waterless plateau to the
damp and stifling air of the low Caspian region.
The narrow tract of which this is a description can at no time have
sheltered a very numerous or powerful people. During the Median period,
and for many ages afterwards, it seems to have been inhabited by various
petty tribes of predatory habits--Cadusians, Mardi, Tapyri, etc.,--who
passed their time in petty quarrels among themselves, and in plundering
raids upon their great southern neighbor. Of these tribes the Cadusians
alone enjoyed any considerable reputation. They were celebrated for
their skill with the javelin--a skill probably represented by the modern
Persian use of the _djereed_. According to Diodorus, they were engaged
in frequent wars with the Median kings, and were able to bring into the
field a force of 200,000 men! Under the Persians they seem to have been
considered good soldiers, and to have sometimes made a struggle for
independence. But there is no real reason to believe that they were
of such strength as to have formed at any time a danger to the Median
kingdom, to which it is more probable that they generally acknowledged a
qualified subjection.
The great country of Armenia, which lay north-west and partly north of
Media, has been generally described in the first volume; but a few
words will be here added with respect to the more eastern portion, which
immediately bordered upon the Median territory. This consisted of
two outlying districts, separated from the rest of the country, the
triangular basin of Lake Van, and the tract between the Kur and
Aras rivers--the modern Karabagh and Erivan. The basin of Lake Van,
surrounded by high ranges, and forming the very heart of the mountain
system of this part of Asia, is an isolated region, a sort of natural
citadel, where a strong military power would be likely to establish
itself. Accordingly it is here, and here alone in all Armenia, that we
find signs of the existence, during the Assyrian and Median periods, of
a great organized monarchy.
The Van inscriptions indicate to us a line of kings who bore sway in the
eastern Armenia--the true Ararat--and who were both in civilization
and in military strength far in advance of any of the other princes who
divided among them the Armenian territory. The Van monarchs may have
been at times formidable enemies of the Medes. They have left traces of
their dominion, not only on the tops of the mountain passes which lead
into the basin of Lake Urumiyeh, but even in the comparatively low plain
of Miyandab on the southern shore of that inland sea. It is probable
from this that they were at one time masters of a large portion of Media
Atropatene, and the very name of Urumiyeh, which still attaches to the
lake, may have been given to it from one of their tribes. In the tract
between the Kur and Aras, on the other hand, there is no sign of
the early existence of any formidable power. Here the mountains are
comparatively low, the soil is fertile, and the climate temperate. The
character of the region would lead its inhabitants to cultivate the arts
of peace rather than those of war, and would thus tend to prevent them
from being formidable or troublesome to their neighbors.
The Zagros region, which in the more ancient times separated between
Media and Assyria, being inhabited by a number of independent tribes,
but which was ultimately absorbed into the more powerful country,
requires no notice here, having been sufficiently described among the
tracts by which Assyria was bordered. At first a serviceable shield
to the weak Arian tribes which were establishing themselves along its
eastern base upon the high plateau, it gradually passed into their
possession as they increased in strength, and ultimately became a main
nursery of their power, furnishing to their armies vast numbers both of
men and horses. The great horse pastures, from which the Medes first and
the Persians afterwards, supplied their numerous and excellent
cavalry, were in this quarter; and the troops which it furnished--hardy
mountaineers accustomed to brave the severity of a most rigorous
climate--must have been among the most effective of the Median forces.
On the south Media was bounded by Persia proper--a tract which
corresponded nearly with the modern province of Farsistan. The complete
description of this territory, the original seat of the Persian nation,
belongs to a future volume of this work, which will contain an account
of the “Fifth Monarchy.” For the present it is sufficient to observe
that the Persian territory was for the most part a highland, very
similar to Media, from which it was divided by no strongly marked line
or natural boundary. The Persian mountains are a continuation of the
Zagros chain, and Northern Persia is a portion--the southern portion--of
the same great plateau, whose western and north-western skirts formed
the great mass of the Median territory. Thus upon this side Media was
placed in the closest connection with an important country, a country
similar in character to her own, where a hardy race was likely to grow
up, with which she might expect to have difficult contests.
Finally, towards the east lay the great salt desert, sparsely inhabited
by various nomadic races, among which the most important were the
Cossseans and the Sagartians. To the latter people Herodotus seems to
assign almost the whole of the sandy region, since he unites them with
the Sarangians and Thamanseans on the one hand, with the Utians and
Mycians upon the other. They were a wild race, probably of Arian origin,
who hunted with the lasso over the great desert mounted on horses, and
could bring into the field a force of eight or ten thousand men. Their
country, a waste of sand and gravel, in parts thickly encrusted with
salt, was impassable to an army, and formed a barrier which effectively
protected Media along the greater portion of her eastern frontier.
Towards the extreme north-east the Sagartians were replaced by the
Cossseans and the Parthians, the former probably the people of the
Siah-Koh mountain, the latter the inhabitants of the tract known now
as the Atak, or “skirt,” which extends along the southern flank of the
Elburz range from the Caspian Gates nearly to Herat, and is capable
of sustaining a very considerable population. The Cossseans were
plunderers, from whose raids Media suffered constant annoyance; but they
were at no time of sufficient strength to cause any serious fear.
The Parthians, as we learn from the course of events, had in them the
materials of a mighty people; but the hour for their elevation and
expansion was not yet come, and the keenest observer of Median times
could scarcely have perceived in them the future lords of Western Asia.
From Parthia, moreover, Media was divided by the strong rocky spur which
runs out from the Elburz into the desert in long. 52° 10’ nearly, over
which is the narrow pass already mentioned as the Caspian Gates. Thus
Media on most sides was guarded by the strong natural barriers of seas,
mountains, and deserts lying open only on the south, where she adjoined
upon a kindred people. Her neighbors were for the most part weak in
numbers, though warlike. Armenia, however, to the north-west, Assyria to
the west, and Persia to the south, were all more or less formidable.
A prescient eye might have foreseen that the great struggles of
Media would be with these powers, and that if she attained imperial
proportions it must be by their subjugation or absorption.