Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

126 HISTORY C/F PERSIA
countrymen to the obvious detriment of his private
affairs, and thereupon he ceased to administer justice.
As he had probably anticipated, robberies and disorders
of every kind again broke out, which the Medes con-
trasted with the order previously maintained. To quote
Herodotus :
*' We cannot possibly, they said, go on
living in this country if things continue as they now are ;
let us set a king over us, so that the land may be well
governed, and we ourselves may
be able to attend to our
own affairs, and not be forced to quit our own country
on account of anarchy." ^
Ecbatana^ the Capital.—An election was held and, as
had in all likelihood been carefully prearranged, Deioces
was chosen king. His first act was to surround himself
with a powerful bodyguard. He then proceeded to
build a capital, selecting for the purpose the town of
Hamadan. This historical city is first mentioned, under
the name of Amadana, in the inscription of Tiglathpileser
I., and in ancient Persian inscriptions it appears
as Hagmatana or '' The meeting place of many roads " ;
the Greeks termed it Ecbatana. Hamadan is situated at
the foot of Mount Alvand,^ the classical Orontes, a mighty
granite range rising more than twelve thousand feet above
sea level, or
just
six thousand feet above Hamadan, the
climate of which, though severe in winter, is delightful in
summer. Its situation marked it out for a
capital.
It
is protected by Alvand to the south and south-west, and
commands the route to Babylonia and Assyria and
also the plains of upland Persia. Placed at a point
where many roads meet and surrounded by a fertile,
well-watered plain, it is not surprising that through all
its vicissitudes Hamadan has invariably been an import-
ant centre. The modern city, with its thirty thousand '.
inhabitants, among whom are a number of Jews, is
exceptionally squalid.
The Musallah hill, on which once stood the famous
capital of Media, lies to the east of the modern city.
The walls, seven in number, were concentric and so
1 i. 97.
2 Alvand is the Aurant of the Avesta. The classical Orontes is nearer the old
Median name than the modern Alvand.