It is curious that, whilst Herodotus and other ancient writers mention Susa, Babylon, and Ecba tana, no contemporary author mentions Persepolis ; and moreover they mark the portions of the year which the Persian monarchs used to spend at their several residences in such a manner as to leave no portion of the year vacant for Persepolis' (Heeren, As. Nations, i. p. 92). (Deipnosoph., xii. p. 513, F), however, says that the Persian kings resided at Persepolis during the autumn of each year ; but statements of other writers (Xen., Cyrop., viii. 6. 22 ; Plut., de Exil., xii. so) leave this un certain. Notwithstanding, it cannot be doubted that it was a royal residence, and as Strabo (xv. p. 729) states, after Susa, the richest city of the Persians.
It is, however, to be observed that the expedi tion of Antiochus Epiphanes to Persia is very dif ferently related in I Maccab. vi. r, 2. It is there stated that Antiochus, having heard say that Ely mais, in the country of Persia, was a city (67E 'EXvilats Ev ri7 Ileperi(L rais ; 571 101" LP EY 'EXtlp.S iv ni llepo-13c 71-6XLs, Cod. Alex.) greatly renowned for riches, silver, and gold, and that there was in it a very rich temple, wherein were coverings of gold, and breastplates, and shields, which Alexander, son of Philip, the Macedonian king, who reigned first among the Grecians, has left there, came and sought to take the city and to spoil it,' but was defeated in the attempt.
This account is strictly followed by Josephus (Antiq. xii. 9. 1), who adds that it was the temple of Diana against which the expedition was made— a fact also recorded by Polybius (xxxi. I), but by Appian (Syr., 66) stated to have been the temple of Venus.
These statements receive some confirmation from the temple of the goddess Nanea' being men tioned as visited by Antiochus (2 Maccab. i. 13-15). Nanea has been identified with both Artemis and Aphrodite, and is evidently the 'AvairLs of Strabo (xv. p. 532), the numen patriunz of the Persians,
Medes, and Armenians. (For an account of this deity, see Norris, in Roy. As. Soc., xv. p. 161 ; Rawlinson, Herod., vol. i. p. 634.) [NANEA.] It is quite evident that there is an error in the Mac cabees and in Josephus, in both of which Elymais is called a city,' for all historians and geographers call it a province (Smith's Did. of Biog., s.v. Ely mais) [ELAM], and it is even so particularised in the Cod. Alex. ; and Strabo especially (xvi. p. 744), who mentions three temples—to Belus, Minerva, and Diana, called Azara—does not place them in the city of Elymais, but at different places in the country of the Elyrnxans. It was the temple of Belus that was attacked by Antiochus the Great in B.C. 187, when he was killed by the people, who rose in its defence (Strab., 1. c. xvi. 1, 18 ; Diod. Sic., xxix. 15 ; cf. xxviii. 3 ; Justin, xxxii. ch. 2), against the opinion of Aurelius Victor (De Viris Must., 54)5 who says he was slain by his attendants during the carousals.
Taking the following facts into consideration :— I. That Persepolis, according to the account of most historians, was utterly destroyed, and all the treasures carried away ; 2. that the expedition of Antiochus Epiphanes thereto is only recorded in the ad Maccab. ; 3. that Antiochus' father had already made an attack on the temple of Elymais, which was perhaps an inducement for the son to do the same ; 4. that the expedition to Elymais and to its temple—the deity of which is named—is not only mentioned in the 1st and ad Maccab., but is also recorded by Polybius and Appian, it seems more probable that it was against an Elynzecan temple that Antiochus Epiphanes directed his at tack, an opinion that has been already advanced by Grimm (Kurzgef. Exeg. Handb. an den Apok.) —F. W. M.