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Ecbatana
Old Persian HAGMATANA, Modern Persian HAMADAN
The capital of the kingdom of the Medes.
Ecbatana was attacked by Cyrus the Great around
550 BC [Chronicle of Nabonidus] when he conquered
the Medes and united them to Persia. It was attacked again
by Darius I when it became the centre of a Median
nationalist revolt. Under Persian rule it was the site
of a secondary or summer capital of the Empire.
The attack of Nebuchadnezzar on Ecbatana described in the
Book of Judith is not attested
historically, unless "Nebuchadnezzar" is a code-name for
the King of Persia; in any case, Judith seems
to have a perhaps-deliberately ambiguous historical setting.
Under construction --- far from complete! Read with caution.
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