[455] This was the capital of Media, called in Chaldee _Achmetha_ (Ezra vi. 2). The present city of Hamadan is on the same site. It is situated at the foot of Mount Orontes, and was used by the Persian and Parthian kings as their summer residence. It was surrounded by seven walls, each overtopping the one before it, from the outer to the inner, crowned with battlements of different colours. Its citadel was used as a royal treasury. Below it stood a splendid palace, with silver tiles, and adorned with wainscotings, capitals, and entablatures of gold and silver. These treasures, to the value of 4,000 talents, were coined into money by Antiochus the Great of Syria. See _Herodotus_, i. 98; _Polybius_, x. 27. [456] This tribe lived in the mountains between Media and Persia. [457] £1,700,000. [458] _Curtius_ (v. 23) says that 6,000 Grecian mercenaries under Plato the Athenian met Alexander in Media, having marched up from Cilicia. [459] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 80) says that the amount of treasure deposited at Ecbatana was 180,000 talents or £41,400,000. [460] A large city in the extreme north of Media, mentioned in the Book of Tobit. It was famous in the Middle Ages under the name of Rai. The ruins of Rai lie south-east of Teheran. [461] ἔστε generally means _until_. In its present use cf. ii. 11 supra, ἔστε μὲν φάος ἦν. [462] The Drangians lived in a part of Ariana west of Arachosia. [463] _Justin_ (xi. 15) and _Curtius_ (v. 34) state that Darius was bound in chains of gold. The former says that the name of the place was Thara in Parthia, where the king was arrested. Probably these chains were those worn by the king or his nobles, according to the Persian custom. This is the only sentence in Arrian where περὶ suffers anastrophe, coming after the noun. [464] Plutarch (_Alex._, 42) says that Alexander rode 3,300 stades, or about 400 miles, in eleven days. In the next chapter he says that only sixty of his men were able to keep up with him in the pursuit. [465] _Curtius_ (v. 24-38) gives very ample details of what occurred during the last days of Darius. Cf. _Diodorus_ (xvii. 73); _Justin_ (xi. 15). [466] The Persian kings were buried at Persepolis. See _Diodorus_, xvii. 71. Plutarch (_Alex._, 43) says that Alexander sent the corpse of Darius to his mother. [467] In the year B.C. 330, the first of Hecatombaion fell on the first of July. [468] Darius came to the throne B.C. 336.