ACHMETHA (Nrinri,t, Ezra vi. 2; 'EKI3drava, 2 Mace. ix. 3 ; Judith i. I, 2 ; Tob. iii. 7 ; Joseph. Antiq. X. I 1, 7 ; xi. 4, 6; also, in Greek authors, 'EtyPctrava and 'Aypctrapa), a city in Media. The derivation of the name is doubtful ; but Sir H. Rawlinson (journal of Geogr. Soc. x. 134) has left little question that the title was applied exclusively to cities having a fortress for the protection of the royal treasures. In Ezra we learn that in the reign of Darius Hystaspes the Jews petitioned that search might be made in the king's treasure-house at Babylon for the decree which Cyrus had made in favour of the Jews (Ezra v. 17). Search was accordingly made in the record-office (`house of the rolls'), where the treasures were kept at Babylon t): but it appears not to have been found there, as it was eventually discovered at Achmetha, in the palace of the province of the Medes' (vi. 2). It is here worthy of remark, that the LXX. re garded `Achmetha,' in which they could hardly avoid recognizing the familiar title of Ecbatana, as the generic name for a city, and, accordingly, rendered it by n'bXic; and that Josephus, as well as all the Christian Greeks, while retaining the proper name of Ecbatana, yet agree with the Greek Scriptures, in employing the word to express the Hebrew Nriva, Birtha (` the palace'), which is used as the distinctive epithet of the city.
In Judith i. 2-4, there is a brief account of Ecbatana, in which we are told that it was built by Arphaxad, king of the Medes, who made it his capital. It was built of hewn stones, and surrounded by a high and thick wall, furnished with wide gates and strong and lofty towers. Herodotus ascribes its foundation to Dejoces, in obedience to whose commands the Medes erected `that great and strong city, now known under the name of Agba tana, where the walls are built circle within circle, and are so constructed that each inner circle over tops its outer neighbour by the height of the battle ments alone. This was effected partly by the nature of the ground, a conical hill, and partly by the building itself The number of the circles was seven, and within the innermost was the palace of the treasury. The battlements of the first circle were white, of the second black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth blue, of the fifth orange ; all these were brilliantly coloured with different pigments ; but the battlements of the sixth circle were overlaid with silver, and of the seventh with gold. Such were the palace and the surrounding fortification that Dejoces constructed for himself: but he ordered the mass of the Median nation to construct their houses in a circle around the outer wall' (Herodot. i. 9S). It is contended by Sir H.
Rawlinson (Geogr. 7ounial, x. 127) that this story of the seven walls is a fable of Sal:Kean origin, the seven colours mentioned being precisely those employed by the Orientals to denote the seven great heavenly bodies, or the seven climates in which they revolve. He adds (p. 12S), 'I cannot believe that at Agbatana the walls were really painted of these colours : indeed, battlements with gold and silver are manifestly fabulous ; nor do I think that there ever could have been even seven concentric circles; but in that early age, where it is doubtful whether mithraicism, or fire-worship, had originated in this part of Asia, it is not at all impro bable that, according to the Saban superstitions, the city should have been dedicated to the seven heavenly bodies, and perhaps a particular part assigned to the protection of each, with some coloured device emblematic of the tutelar divinity." This Ecbatana has been usually identified with the present Hamadan [which is confirmed by the spelling Hagmatan in the cuneiform inscriptions]. Sir H. Rawlinson, however, while admitting that Hamadan occupies the site of the Median Ecbatana, has a learned and most elaborate paper in the Geographical journal (x. 65-158; On the Site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana), in which he endeavours to shew that the present Takht-i-Suleiman was the site of another, the Atropatenian Ecbatana ; and that to it, rather than to the proper Median Ecbatana, the statement in Herodotus and most of the other ancient accounts are to be understood to refer. Our only business is with the Achmetha of Ezra ; and that does not require us to enter into this question. Sir Henry, indeed, seems inclined to consider the Ecbatana of the apocryphal books as his Atropatenian Ecbatana ; but is rather more doubtful in claiming it as the Achmetha of Ezra. But without undertaking to determine what amount of ancient history should be referred to the one or to the other, we feel bound to conclude that Hamadan was the site of the Achmetha of Ezra, and the Ecbatana of the Apocrypha : 1. Because it is admitted that the Median Ecbatana was a more ancient and more anciently great city than the Atropatenian metropolis. 2. Because the name • Achmetha' may easily, through the Syrian Ahmethan, and the Armenian Ahmetan, be traced in the Persian Hamadan. 3. And because all the traditions of the Jews refer to Hamadan as the site of the Achmetha and Ecbatana of their Scriptures.