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