And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written:
There was found at Achmetha, х bª-'Achmaªtaa' (H307). The margin of our English Bible has 'in a coffer.' But it is expressly said by the Septuagint, en polei, in a city] - the Ecbatana, or Agbatana, of classical, the Hamadan of modern times, at the foot of mount Orontes, the Elwend range of hills, where, for its coolness and salubrity, Cyrus and his successors on the Persian throne established their summer residence. It was an unwalled town (Polybius, b.
x., ch. 27:, sec. 10), like most of the towns of the Medea and Persians, which were clustered round a citadel, instead of being surrounded by walls. Ecbatana, besides a magnificent palace, said to have been built by Semiramis, had an "akra", a tower (Polybius, b. 10:, ch. 27:, sec. 6) of vast strength.
There was another city, however, of this name, the Ecbatana of Atropatene, and the most ancient capital of northern Media, and recently identified by Colonel Rawlinson in the remarkable ruins of Takht-i-Soleiman. Yet as everything tends to show the attachment of Cyrus to his native city, the Atropatenian Ecbatana, rather than to the stronger capital of Greater Media, Colonel Rawlinson is inclined to think that he deposited there, in his var or fortress, the famous decree relating to the Jews, along with the other records and treasures of his empire ('Nineveh and Persepolis'). [This conjecture is confirmed by the Septuagint, which has: en tee barei, in the citadel.]