Persepolis

• a city of Persia, the ruins of which are now called Istakhr, Plin. 6, 26, 29, § 115; Curt. 5, 4, 33; 5, 6, 11 sq.; Vulg. 2 Macc. 9, 2; Amm.23, 6, 42.

PERSE´POLIS (Περσέπολις, Diod. 17.70; Ptol. 6.4.4; Curt. 5.4. 6; Περσαίπολις, Strab. 15.729: Eth. Περσεπολίτης), the capital of Persis at the time of the invasion of Alexander, and the seat of the chief palaces of the kings of Persia. It was situated at the opening of an extensive plain (now called Mardusht), and near the junction of two streams, the Araxes (Bendamír) and the Medus (Pulwán). The ruins, which are still very extensive, bear the local name of the Chel Minar, or Forty Columns. According to Diodorus the city was originally surrounded by a triple wall of great strength and beauty (17.71). Strabo states that it was, after Susa, the richest city of the Persians, and that it contained a palace of great beauty (15. p. 729), and adds that Alexander burnt this building to avenge the Greeks for the similar injuries which had been inflicted on them by the Persians (15. p. 730). Arrian simply states that Alexander burnt the royal palace, contrary to the entreaty of Parmenion, who wished him to spare this magnificent building, but does not mention the name of Persepolis. (Anab. 3.18.) Curtius, who probably drew his account from the many extant notices of Alexander's expedition by different officers who had accompanied him, has fully described the disgraceful burning of the city and palace at Persepolis by the Greek monarch and his drunken companions. He adds that, as it was chiefly built of cedar, the fire spread rapidly far and wide.

Great light has been thrown upon the monuments which still remain at Persepolis by the researches of Niebuhr and Ker Porter, and still more so by the interpretation of the cuneiform inscriptions by Colonel Rawlinson and Prof. Lassen. From the result of their inquiries, it seems doubtful whether any portion of the present ruins ascend to so high a period as that of the founder of the Persian monarchy, Cyrus. The principal buildings are doubtless due to Dareius the son of Hystaspes, and to Xerxes. The palace and city of Cyrus was at Pasargada, while that of the later monarchs was at Persepolis. (Rawlinson, Journ. of Roy. As. Soc. vol. x; Lassen, in Ersch and Gruber's Encycl. s.v.; Fergusson, Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored, Lond. 1851.) It has been a matter of some doubt how far Persepolis itself ever was the ancient site of the capital; and many writers have supposed that it was only the high place of the Persian monarchy where the great palaces and temples were grouped together. On the whole, it seems most probable that the rock on which the ruins are now seen was the place where the palaces and temples were placed, and that the city was extended at its feet along the circumjacent plain. Subsequent to the time of Alexander, Persepolis is not mentioned in history except in the second book of the Maccabees, where it is stated that Antiochus Epiphanes made a fruitless attempt to plunder the temples. (2 Maccab. 9.1.) In the later times of the Muhammedan rule, the fortress of Istakhr, which was about 4 miles from the ruins, seems to have occupied the place of Persepolis; hence the opinion of some writers, that Istakhr itself was part of the ancient city. (Niebuhr, 2. p. 121; Chardin, Voyages, 8. p. 245; Ker Porter, vol. 1. p. 576; Ouseley, Travels, 2. p. 222.)

(Περσέπολις, Περσαίπολις; in the Middle Ages, Istakhar; now Takhti-Jemshid, i. e. “Throne of Jemshid,” or Chil-Minar, i. e. “Forty Pillars”). The Greek name, probably translated from the Persian name which is not recorded, of the great city which succeeded Pasargada as the capital of Persis and of the Persian Empire. From the circumstance, however, of the conquest of the Babylonian Empire taking place about the time when Persepolis attained this dignity, it appears to have been seldom used as the royal residence. Neither Herodotus, Xenophon, Ctesias, nor the sacred writers during the Persian period, mention it at all; though they often speak of Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana as the capitals of the Empire. It is only from the Greek writers after the Macedonian conquest that we learn its rank in the Empire, which appears to have consisted chiefly in its being one of the two burial places of the Persian kings (the other being Pasargada), and also a royal treasury; for Alexander found in the palace immense riches, which were said to have accumulated from the time of Cyrus. Its foundation is sometimes ascribed to Cyrus the Great, but more generally to his son Cambyses. It was greatly enlarged and adorned by Darius I. and Xerxes, and preserved its splendour till after the Macedonian conquest, when it was burned; Alexander, as the story goes, setting fire to the palace with his own hand at the end of a revel by the instigation of the courtesan Thaïs in B.C. 331. It was not, however, so entirely destroyed as some historians represent. It appears frequently in subsequent history, both ancient and mediaeval. It is now deserted, but its ruins are considerable, though too dilapidated to give any good notion of Persian architecture, and they are rich in cuneiform inscriptions. In the days of its splendour a great plaza or species of platform was crowned with palaces, halls, and altars. Here were stored the treasures which Alexander rifled; and here was kept the copy of the Avesta (see Zoroaster), written on 12,000 oxhides in letters of gold.

Among the ruins still existing three groups are distinguished by archaeologists: first, the Forty Pillars proper, with the so-called “Mountain of Tombs” or “Throne of Jamshid,” after a fabulous king who is said to have founded the city; second, the Naksh-in-Rustam, a collection of tombs; and third, a building now called “the Haram of Jamshid.” The first group is the most important, being the terrace already mentioned, built of cyclopean masonry, and extending 1500 feet in one direction and 800 in another. It was once surrounded by triple walls of a height varying from about 48 to 100 feet. There are still to be distinguished on the central platform the so-called “Great Hall of Xerxes,” the Palace of Xerxes, and the Palace of Darius. The stone used for these structures is dark grayish marble cut into enormous square blocks, and highly polished. The ascent to this platform is by two double flights of steps nearly 22 feet in width and only 3 1/2 inches high, so that they have been ascended in modern times on horseback. The portals still exhibit huge figures of animals, 15 feet high, and not unlike the Assyrian bulls of Nineveh. The cuneiform inscriptions are ascribed to Xerxes.

Persepolis was situated in the heart of Persis, in the part called Hollow Persis (κοίλη Περσίς), not far from the border of the Carmanian Desert, in a beautiful and healthy valley, through which runs the river Araxes. After Alexander's time the place was of secondary importance. It was plundered by Antiochus in B.C. 164, and later was the residence of a Persian viceroy. See Fergusson, The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored; Vaux, Nineveh and Persepolis; Mme. Dieulafoy, La Perse et la Susiane; and especially Stölze and Noldeke, Persepolis, with fine photographic views (Berlin, 1882).