This city, which Heraclius says was as large as Athens, was founded by
one of the most illustrious princes that ever adorned the
earth--Dejoces, King of the Medes. Not that we mean to vindicate or
approve all that he did; but, "taking him for all in all," history has
but few characters that can be placed in competition with him.
It is not our intention to write the history of this celebrated prince
anew, his story being almost unanimously allowed: we have only to copy.
We shall, therefore, select the account, compiled by Rollin, from the
testimony of Herodotus; ours being an abstract.
The Medes were a people divided into tribes. They dwelt almost entirely
in villages; but Dejoces, finding with how great an inconvenience such a
mode of life was attended, erected the state into a monarchy. The
methods he took to accomplish this, exhibited the consummate wisdom with
which his mind was endowed. When he formed the design, he laboured to
make the good qualities that had been observed in him more conspicuous
than ever; and he succeeded so well, that the inhabitants of the
district in which he lived, made him their judge. His conduct fully
answered the expectation of those who elected him. He brought the
association into a regular mode of life; and this being observed by a
multitude of other villages, they soon began to make him arbitrator for
them, as he had been for the first. "When he found himself thus
advanced," says the historian, "he judged it a proper time to set his
last engines to work for compassing his point. He, therefore, retired
from business, pretending to be over-fatigued with the multitude of
people that resorted to him from all quarters; and would not exercise
the office of judge any longer, notwithstanding all the importunity of
such as wished well to the public tranquillity. When any person
addressed themselves to him, he told them, that his own domestic affairs
would not allow him to attend to those of other people."
The consequence of this withdrawal was, that the various communities
relapsed into a worse state than they had been before; and the evil
increased so rapidly, from day to day, that the Medes felt themselves
constrained to meet, in order to endeavour to find some remedy for it.
This was what Dejoces had foreseen. He sent emissaries, therefore, to
the assembly, with instructions in what manner to act. When the turn
came for those persons to speak, they declared their opinion, that
unless the face of the republic was entirely changed, the whole country
would be entirely uninhabitable. "The only means," said they, "left for
us is, to elect a king. Having elected a sovereign, with authority to
restrain violence, and make laws, every one can prosecute his own
affairs in peace and security." This opinion was seconded by the consent
of the whole assembly. All that remained then was to find out a proper
person. This did not require much time. Dejoces was the man to whom all
eyes were instantly turned. He was, therefore, immediately elected king
with the consent of all present. "There is," says the author from whom
we borrow, "nothing nobler or greater, than to see a private person,
eminent for his merit and virtue, and fitted by his excellent talents
for the highest employments, and yet, through inclination and modesty,
preferring a life of obscurity and retirement; thus to see such a man
sincerely refuse the offer made to him of reigning over a whole nation,
and at last consent to undergo the toil of government upon no other
motive than that of being useful to his fellow citizens. Such a governor
was Numa at Rome, and such have been some other governors, whom the
people have constrained to accept the supreme power. But," continues he
in a strain of great wisdom, "to put on the mask of modesty and virtue,
in order to satisfy one's ambition, as Dejoces did; to affect to appear
outwardly what a man is not inwardly; to refuse for a time, and then
accept with a seeming repugnancy what a man earnestly desires, and what
he has been labouring by secret, underhand, practices to obtain; this
double dealing has so much meanness in it, that it goes a great way to
lessen our opinion of the person, be his talents never so great or
extraordinary."
The method by which Dejoces gained his ambition to be king, greatly
disenchants us of his merits. But having attained it, he acted in a
manner few men have been found to adopt, even when they have arrived at
the throne by the most legitimate of methods. He set himself to civilise
and polish his subjects; men who, having lived perpetually in villages,
almost without laws and without polity, had contracted rude manners and
savage dispositions.
Thus animated, he selected a hill, the ascent of which was regular on
every side, and having marked out, with his own hands, the circumference
of the walls, he laid the foundation of a city, which became the capital
of the dominions of which he had been elected sovereign. When he had
done this, he constructed walls after the following manner. Their number
was seven; all disposed in such a manner, that the outermost did not
hinder the parapet of the second from being seen; nor the second that of
the third, and so of all the rest. Within the last and smallest
inclosure he erected his own palace; and there he kept all his
treasures. The first and largest inclosure is supposed to have been of
about the size of Athens, when at its greatest height. The palace was at
the foot of the citadel, and about seven furlongs in circumference. The
wood-work was of cedar or cypress; the beams, the ceilings, the columns
of the porticoes, and the peristyles, were plated with either gold or
silver; the roofs were covered with silver tiles.
This city the founder called ECBATANA[215]. The aspect of it was
beautiful and magnificent; and, having completed it to his satisfaction,
he employed himself in composing laws for the good of the community. In
order to do this with greater effect, and with a view to keep up the
respect which nearness of view is apt to impair with rude and ignorant
persons, he secluded himself almost entirely from the people at large.
All was done through the medium of agents and servants. He knew all
that was passing. He made a multitude of wise laws. He became literally
the true father of his people; for so entirely did he give himself up to
the contemplation of their benefit, that though he reigned not less than
fifty-three years, he had no reason to complain of any of the
neighbouring kingdoms; and so satisfied was he of the good belonging to
his own fortune, that he never once engaged in any enterprise against
them.
Dejoces was succeeded by his son Phraortes, of whom it is not necessary
to say more than that he enlarged the city his father had built. He was
succeeded by Cyaxares I., who reigned forty years. He made himself
master of all the cities of the kingdom of Assyria, except Babylon and
Chaldæa. Astyages was the next king of the Medes, he who is called in
scripture Ahasuerus.[216] He married his daughter, Mandana, to Cambyses
king of Persia; and thereby became grandfather to the great Cyrus, one
of the most remarkable princes in all history. He was succeeded by
Cyaxares II., called in scripture Darius the Mede; who, under the
generalship of Cyrus, having taken Babylon, Cyrus, on the death of his
father Cambyses, and his uncle, whom he had made governor of Babylon,
united the empires of the Medes and Persians under one and the same
authority. Ecbatana, therefore, from that time ceased to be the chief
seat of authority[217].
Diodorus Siculus relates, that when Semiramis came to Ecbatana, "which,"
says he, "is situated in a low and even plain," she built a stately
palace there, and bestowed more care upon that city than she had done
upon any other. For the city wanting water (there being no spring near
it), she plentifully supplied it with such as was good, which she
brought thither in this manner. There is a mountain called Orontes,
twelve furlongs distant from the city, exceedingly high and steep for
the space of twenty-five furlongs up to the top. On the other side of
this mount there is a large mere, or lake, which empties itself into the
river. At the foot of this mount she dug a canal fifteen feet in breadth
and forty in depth, through which she conveyed water to the city in
great abundance[218].
Alexander being in pursuit of Darius, came within three days' march of
Ecbatana, where he was met by the son of Ochus, who informed him that
Darius had left that city five days before, carrying with him five
thousand talents (about one million five hundred thousand pounds), from
the Median treasury. When Alexander took possession of the city, he laid
up all the treasure he had got from Persis and Susiana. It was in this
city that Darius made the following remarkable speech to the principal
officers of his army. He had lost Persepolis and Pasagarda:--"Dear
companions, among so many thousand men who composed my army, you only
have not abandoned me during the whole course of my ill-fortune; and, in
a short time, nought but your fidelity and constancy will be able to
make me fancy myself a king. Deserters and traitors now govern in my
cities. Not that they are thought worthy of the honour bestowed upon
them; but rewards are given them only in the view of tempting you, and
staggering your perseverance. You still chose to follow my fortune
rather than that of the conqueror; for which you certainly have merited
a recompense from the gods; and I do not doubt but they will prove
beneficent towards you, in case that power is denied me. With such
soldiers and officers I would brave, without the least dread, the enemy,
how formidable soever he may be. What! would any one have me surrender
myself up to the mercy of the conqueror, and expect from him, as a
reward of my baseness and meanness of spirit, the government of some
province which he may condescend to leave? No! It never shall be in the
power of any man, either to take away, or fix upon my head, the diadem I
wear. The same power shall put a period to my reign and life. If you
have all the same courage and resolution, which I can no longer doubt, I
assure myself that you shall retain your liberty, and not be exposed to
the pride and insults of the Macedonians. You have in your own hands the
means either to revenge or terminate all your evils." Having ended this
speech, the whole body replied with shouts, that they were ready to
follow him in all fortunes.
Nabarzanes and Bessus soon showed the unfortunate king how little
confidence is to be placed in man. They and other traitors seized upon
Darius, bound him in chains of gold, placed him in a covered chariot,
and set out for Bactriana, with the design of delivering their master up
to Alexander. They afterwards murdered him.
Plutarch says of Alexander, that he traversed all the province of
Babylon, which immediately made its submission; and that in the district
of Ecbatana, he saw a gulf of fire, which streamed continually, as from
an inexhaustible source. He admired, also, a flood of naphtha, not far
from the gulf, which flowed in such abundance that it formed a lake. The
naphtha, in many respects, resembles the bitumen, but is much more
inflammable. Before any fire touches it, it catches light from a flame
at some distance, and often kindles all the immediate air. The
barbarians, to show the king its force, and the subtlety of its nature,
scattered some drops of it in the street, which led to his lodging; and
standing at one end, they applied their torches to some of the first
drops; for it was night. The flame communicated itself swifter than
thought, and the street was instantaneously all on fire.
On his arrival, Alexander offered magnificent sacrifices to the deities,
in thanksgiving for the success that had crowned his arms. Gymnic games
and theatrical representations succeeded, and universal festivities
reigned in the Grecian army. But in the midst of these rejoicings, the
king had the misfortune to lose the friend he loved the most. He was
engaged in presiding at the games, when he was suddenly and hastily sent
for; but before he could reach the bed-side of Hephæstion, his friend
had expired.
The king gave himself up to sorrow many days. At length, when he had
recovered his self-command, he gave orders for a magnificent funeral,
the expense of which is said to have amounted to not less than 10,000
talents, that is, about two millions! All the Oriental subjects were
charged to put on mourning; and it is even affirmed, that, to gratify
Alexander's affection, several of his companions dedicated themselves
and arms to the deceased favourite. The folly of Alexander went even
farther. He wrote to Cleomenes, his governor in Egypt, a person of an
inordinate bad character, commanding him to erect two temples to
Hephæstion; one at Alexandria, and another in the island of Pharos: "If
I find these temples erected, when I return into Egypt, I will not only
forgive all thy past deeds, but likewise all thou mayest hereafter
commit!"
Plutarch says:--When he came to Ecbatana, in Media, and had despatched
the most urgent affairs, he employed himself in the celebration of
games, and other public solemnities; for which purpose 3000 artificers,
lately arrived from Greece, were very serviceable to him. But,
unfortunately, Hephæstion fell sick of a fever in the midst of this
festivity. As a young man and a soldier, he could not bear to be kept to
strict diet; and taking the opportunity to dine when his physician
Glaucus was gone to the theatre, he ate a roasted fowl, and drank a
flagon of wine, made as cold as possible; in consequence of which he
grew worse, and died a few days after.
Plutarch and Quintus Curtius relate, that when Darius offered Alexander
all the country which lies on the west of the Euphrates, with his
daughter Statira in marriage, and a portion of 10,000 talents of gold,
Parmenio having been present at this offer, and having been required to
state his opinion in regard to it, answered, that if it were he, he
would accept it; "so would I," answered Alexander, "were I Parmenio."
Sometime after this, the life of this excellent friend and consummate
general, as well as that of his son, was sacrificed to a mean and wanton
accusation made against him of treason against his master's person;
dying in the height of his prosperity, in the 70th year of his age. At
Ecbatana, it was commonly observed in the army to which he belonged,
that Parmenio had gained many victories without Alexander, but that
Alexander had gained none without Parmenio.
Ecbatana is supposed to have been situated where the modern Hameden now
stands; that is, in the province of Irac-Agemi, winding between Bagdad
and Ispahan, 240 miles from each. It stands at the foot of a mountain,
whence issue streams, that water the country. The adjacent parts are
fertile, and productive of corn and rice. The air is healthy, but the
winter is said to be intense. Its climate, however, was so fine in
ancient times, that the Persian kings preferred it to Ispahan or Susa;
hence It acquired the title of the "Royal City."
"Ecbatana," says Rennell, "was unquestionably on, or near, the site of
Hameden in Al Jebel. A great number of authorities concur in proving
this; although many refer to Tauris, or Tebriz, in Aderbigian; Mr.
Gibbon and Sir William Jones among the rest. The authorities are too
numerous to be adduced here. We shall only mention that Isidore of
Charax places it on the road from Seleucia to Parthia; that Pliny says
Susa is equi-distant from Seleucia and Ecbatana; and that Ecbatana
itself lies in the road from Nineveh to Rages or Ray." "The situation of
Hameden," says Mr. Morier, "so much unlike that of other Persian cities,
would of itself be sufficient to establish its claim to a remote origin,
considering the propensity of the ancients to build their cities on
elevated positions. Ispahan, Schiraz, Teheran, Tabris, Khoi, &c., are
all built on plains; but Hameden occupies a great diversity of surface,
and, like Rome and Constantinople, can enumerate the hills over which it
is spread. Its locality, too, agrees with that of Ecbatana, built on the
declivity of the Orontes, according to Polybius[219], and is also
conformable to Herodotus[220]; who, in describing the walls, rising into
circles one above another, says, 'this mode of building was favoured by
the situation of the place.'"
"I had not expected to see Ecbatana," says Sir Robert Ker Porter, "as
Alexander found it; neither in the superb ruin, in which Timour had
left it; but, almost unconsciously to myself, some indistinct ideas of
what it had been floated before me; and when I actually beheld its
remains, it was with the appalled shock of seeing a prostrate dead body,
where I had anticipated a living man, though drooping to decay. Orontes,
indeed, was there, magnificent and hoary-headed; the funeral remnant of
the poor corpse beneath." The extensive plain of Hameden stretched
below, and the scene there was delightful. Numberless castellated
villages, rising amidst groves of the noblest trees. The whole tract
appeared as a carpet of luxuriant verdure, studded by hamlets and
watered by rivulets. "If the aspect of this part of the country,"
thought the traveller, "now presents so rich a picture, when its palaces
are no more, what must it have been when Astyages held his court here;
and Cyrus, in his yearly courses from Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon,
stretched his golden sceptre over this delicious plain? Well might such
a garden of nature's bounties be the favourite seat of kings, the
nursery of the arts, and all the graceful courtesies of life."
The site of the modern town, Sir Robert goes on to observe, like that of
the ancient, is on a gradual ascent, terminating near the foot of the
eastern side of the mountain. It bears many vestiges of having been
strongly fortified. The sides and summits are covered with large
remnants of great thickness, and also of towers, the materials of which
were bricks, dried in the sun.
When it lost the name of Ecbatana in that of Hameden, it seems to have
lost its honours too; for while it preserved the old appellation of the
capital, whence the great kings of the Kaianian race had dictated their
decrees; and where "Cyrus, the king, had placed, in the house of the
rolls of its palace, the record wherein was written his order for the
rebuilding of Jerusalem," it seems, with the retention of its name, to
have preserved some memory of its consequence, even so far into modern
times as three centuries of "the Christian era." "It was then,"
continues our accomplished traveller, "that Tiridates attempted to
transfer its glories to his own capital; and, according to Ebn Haukel,
the gradual progress of six hundred years mouldered away the
architectural superiority of the ancient city. Towards the end of the
fourteenth century, Tamerlane sacked, pillaged, and destroyed its
proudest buildings, ruined the inhabitants, and reduced the whole, from
being one of the most extensive cities of the East, to hardly a parsang
in length and breadth[221]. In that dismantled and dismembered state,
though dwindled to a mere day-built suburb of what it was, it possessed
iron gates, till within these fifty years; when Aga Mahomed Khan, not
satisfied with the depth of so great a capital's degradation, ordered
every remain of past consequence to be destroyed." The result? "His
commands were obeyed to a tittle. The mud alleys, which now occupy the
site of ancient streets or squares, are narrow, interrupted by large
holes or hollows, in the way, and heaps of the fallen crumbled walls of
deserted dwellings. A miserable bazaar or two are passed through in
traversing the town; and large lonely spots are met with, marked by
broken low mounds over older ruins; with here and there a few poplars or
willow trees, shadowing the border of a dirty stream, abandoned to the
meanest uses; which, probably, flowed pellucid and admired, when these
places were gardens, and the grass-grown heap some stately dwelling of
Ecbatana."
In one or two spots may be observed square platforms of large stones,
many of which are chiselled over with the finest Arabic characters.
These, however, are evidently tomb-stones of the inhabitants during the
caliphs' rule; the register of yesterday. "As I passed through the
wretched hovelled streets, and saw the once lofty city of Astyages,
shrunk like a shrivelled gourd, the contemplation of such a spectacle
called forth more saddening reflections than any that had awakened in me
on any former ground of departed greatness. In some I had seen
mouldering pomp, or sublime desolation; in this, every object spoke of
neglect, and hopeless poverty. Not majesty in stately ruin, pining to
find dissolution on the spot where it was first blasted; but beggary,
seated on the place which kings had occupied, squalid with rags, and
stupid with misery. It was impossible to look on it and not exclaim, "O
Ecbatana, seat of princes! How is the mighty fallen, and the weapons of
war perished!"
Sir Robert saw, not far from the remains of a fortress to the south, the
broken base and shaft of a column; which, on examination, proved to him
that the architecture of Persepolis and Ecbatana had been the same.
Hameden is to be seen for several miles before reaching Surkhahed, for
several stages. Mr. Morier saw nothing in Persia that wore such an
appearance of prosperity; for the plain, about nine miles in breadth and
fifteen in length, was one continued series of fields and orchards.
Hameden itself is one of the best watered places in Persia. All the
habitations are interspersed with trees. The most conspicuous building
is a large mosque, called Mesjed Jumah, now falling into decay; and
there was to be seen, every morning, before the sun rises, a numerous
body of peasants, with spades in their hands, waiting to be hired for
the day, to work in the surrounding fields.[222] Near the Mosque, in a
court, filled with tents, stands a building, called the sepulchre of
Esther and Mordecai. It is of an architecture of the earliest ages of
Mohammedism. It was erected in the year of the Creation 4474, by two
devout Jews of Kasham.
_Translation of the inscription on the marble slab in the
sepulchre of Esther and Mordecai._
"Mordecai, beloved and honoured by a king, was great and good. His
garments were those of a sovereign. Ahasuerus covered him with
this rich dress, and also placed a golden chain around his neck.
The city of Susa rejoiced at his honours, and his high fortune
became the glory of the Jews."
On a steep declivity of the Orontes are to be seen two tablets, each of
which is divided into three longitudinal compartments, inscribed by the
arrow-headed character of Persepolis. In the northern skirts of the
city, Mr. Morier found another monument of antiquity. This is the base
of the column, which we noticed just now; and this, Mr. Morier is
equally certain with Sir Robert, is of the identical order of the
columns of Persepolis, and of the same sort of stone. This, says Mr.
Morier, led to a discovery of some importance; for, adjacent to this
fragment is a large but irregular terrace, evidently the work of art,
and perhaps the ground-plan of some great building; of the remains of
which its soil must be the repository. Mr. Morier is induced to believe,
that the situation of this spot agrees with that Polybius[223] would
assign to the palace of the kings of Persia, which, he says, was below
the citadel.
Besides these, there are many other antiquities; but as they all belong
to Mohammedan times, they do not come within the sphere of our subject.
There are some hopes that this city may, one day, assume a far different
rank than what it now holds;[224] for, within a few years, it has been
created a royal government, and committed to the care of Mohammed Ali
Mirza. Palaces, therefore, have been erected, and mansions for his
ministers, new bazaars and mercantile caravanserais.
We shall close this account with Sir Robert's description of the view
that is to be seen from Mount Orontes, now called Mount Elwund. "It is
one of the most stupendous scenes I had ever seen! I stood on the
eastern park. The apparently intermediate peaks of the Courdistan
mountains spread before me far to the north-west; while continued chains
of the less towering heights of Louristan stretched south-east; and
linking themselves with the more lofty piles of the Bactiari, my eye
followed their receding summits, till lost in the hot and tremulous haze
of an Asiatic sky. The general hue of this endless mountain region was
murky red; to which in many parts the arid glare of the atmosphere gave
so preternatural a brightness, that it might well have been called a
land of fire. From the point on which I stood, I beheld the whole mass
of country round the unbroken concave:--it was of enormous expanse; and
although, from the clearness of the air, and the cloudless state of the
heavens, no object was clouded from my sight; yet, from the immensity of
the height whence I viewed the scene, the luxuriancy of the valleys was
entirely lost in the shadows of the hills; and nothing was left to the
beholder from the top of Elwund, but the bare and burning summits of
countless mountains. Not a drop of water was discernible of all the many
streams, which poured from the bosom into the plains below. In my life I
had never beheld so tremendous a spectacle. It appeared like standing
upon the stony crust of some rocky world, which had yet to be broken up
by the Almighty word, and unfold to the beneficent mandate the
fructifying principles of earth and water, bursting into vegetation and
terrestrial life[225]."