SURVILLE, MARGUERITE ELEONORE CLOTILDE DE VALLON-CHALTS DE, 1405-80; is said to be the writer of poems first collected in 1803 by Vanderbourg. Some ascribe them to one of her descendants, the marquis Joseph Etienne de Surville, and others think these poems were written by the publisher Vauderbourg himself.
SUS, a district in Morlicco, on the Atlantic ocean, between the Asaka river and the Atlas mountains; about 11,000 sq.m.; pop. about 750,000. The surface is mountainous. The soil is rich. The principal agricultural productions are grapes, figs, olives, almonds, dates, and the ordinary grains and vegetables. Lead and copper are found. The climate is salubrious. The principal city is Tarudant, on the river Sus. The inhabit ants of Sus are mostly Arabs or Berbers.
SU'SA (Shushan in Daniel, Esther, etc., derived by some from shoshan, a lily), prob ably the modern Sus or Shusn, in lat. 32° 10' n., and long. 48° 26' e., situated between the Chapses or EuImps (Mai in Daniel), and the Shapur, anciently the capital of Susiana (the Elam of Scripture, mod. Khusistan), and one of the most important cities of the old world. Its foundation is variously ascribed by ancient writers to Darius Hystaspes, or to _Memnon, the son of Tithonus; and its name, together with its ground-plan, is traced on Assyrian monuments at the time of Assur Bani Pal, about 660 B.C. At the time of Dan iel's vision `: at Shushan in the palace," it was under Babylonian dominion, but came, at the time of Cyrus, under Persian rule; and the Achmenian kings raised it to the dignity of a metropolis of the whole Persian empire, and as such .tEschylus, Herodotus,
Ctesias, Strabo, etc., speak of it. At the Macedonian conquest it was still at its height, and Alexander is reported to have found in it vast treasures, together with the regalia. On Babylon becoming the principal city of Alexander and his successors, Susa gradu ally declined, but seems still to have contained enormous wealth at the time of its con quest by Antigonus (315 B.c.). It was once more attacked by Mole in his rebellion against Antiochus the great; and during the Arabian conquest of Persia it held out bravely for a long time, defended by Hormuzan. The ruins of its ancient buildings, the palace described in Esther among them, cover a space of about three miles. The prin cipal existing remains consist of four spacious artificial platforms above 100 ft. high. Traces of a gigantic colonnade were laid bare by Mr. Loftus, with a frontage of 343 ft., and a depth of 244. Cuneiform inscriptions exist, together with many other relics sim ilar to those found at Persepolis (see PERSEPOLIS; compare also CUNEIFORM). The " tomb of Daniel" shown near Susa is a modern Mohammedan building.