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PASARGADAE

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 878 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PASARGADAE , a See also:

city of See also:ancient See also:Persia, situated in the See also:modern See also:plain of See also:Murghab, some 30 M. N.E. of the later Parsepolis. The name originally belonged to one of the tribes of the Persians, which included the See also:clan of the Achaemenidae, from which sprang the royal See also:family of See also:Cyrus and See also:Darius (See also:Herod. i. 125; a Pasargadian Badres is mentioned, Herod. iv. 167). According to the See also:account of See also:Ctesias (preserved by Anaximenes of See also:Lampsacus in Steph. Byz. s.v. HaaaapyaSai; See also:Strabo xv. 730, cf. 729; See also:Nicol. Damasc. fr. 66, 68 sqq.; Polyaen. vii.

6, 1.9.45, 2), the last See also:

battle of Cyrus against See also:Astyages, in which the Persians were incited to a desperate struggle by their See also:women, was fought here. After the victory Cyrus built a See also:town, with his See also:palace and See also:tomb, which was named Pasargadae after the tribe (cf. Curt. v. 6, 1o; x. 1, 22). Every See also:Persian See also:king was, at his See also:accession, invested here, in the See also:sanctuary of a warlike goddess (Anaitis ?), with the garb of Cyrus, and received a See also:meal of See also:figs and terebinths with a See also:cup of sour See also:milk (Plut. Artax. 3); and whenever he entered his native See also:country he gave a See also:gold piece to every woman of Pasargadae in remembrance of the heroic intervention of their ancestors in the battle (Nic. Damasc. loc. cit.; Plut. Alex. 69). According to a fragment of the same tradition, preserved by Strabo (xv.

729), Pasargadae See also:

lay " in the hollow See also:Persis (Coele Persil) on the See also:bank of the See also:river Cyrus, after which the king changed his name, which was formerly Atradates " (in Nic. Damasc. this is the name of his See also:father). The river Cyrus is the Kur of the Persians, now generally named Bandamir; the historians of See also:Alexander See also:call it Araxes, and give to its tributary, the modern Pulwar, which passes by the ruins of Murghab and See also:Persepolis, the name Medos (Strabo xv. 729; Curt. V. 4, 7). The See also:capital of Cyrus was soon supplanted by Persepolis, founded by Darius; but in Pasargadae remained a See also:great See also:treasury, which was surrendered to Alexander in 336 after his See also:conquest of Persis (See also:Arrian iii. 18, ro; Curt. v. 6, 10). After his return from See also:India he visited Pasargadae on the See also:march from Carmania to Persepolis, found the tomb of Cyrus plundered, punished the malefactors, and ordered See also:Aristobulus to restore it (Arriart vi. 29; Strabo xv. 730).

Aristobulus' description agrees exactly with the ruins of Murghab on the Bandamir, about 30 M. upwards from Persepolis; and all the other references in the historians of Cyrus and Alexander indicate the same See also:

place. Nevertheless, some modern authors' have doubted the identity of the ruins of Murghab with Pasargadae, as See also:Ptolemy (vi. 4, 7), places Pasargada or Pasarracha See also:south-eastwards of Persepolis, and mentions a tribe Pasargadae in Carmania on the See also:sea (vi. 8, 12); and See also:Pliny, Nat. /fist. vi. 99, names a Persian ' E.g. Weissbach in Zeitschr. d. d. morgenl. Ges., 48, pp. 653 sqq• ; for the See also:identification cf. Stolze, Persepolis, ii. 269 sqq. ; Curzon, Persia, ii.

71 sqq.river Sitioganus " on which one navigates in seven days to Pasargadae." 2 But it is evident that these accounts are erroneous. The conjecture of See also:

Oppert, that Pasargadae is identical with Pishiyauvada, where (on a See also:mountain Arakadri) the usurper Gaumata (See also:Smerdis) proclaimed himself king, and where his successor, the second false Smerdis Vahyazdata, gathered an See also:army (inscrip. of See also:Behistun, i. 11; iii. 41), is hardly probable. The See also:principal ruins of the town of Pasargadae at Murghab are a great See also:terrace like that of Persepolis, and the remainders of three buildings, on which the See also:building inscription of Cyrus, " I Cyrus the king the Achaemenid " (sc. " have built this "), occurs five times in Persian, Susian and Babylonian. They were built of bricks, with a See also:foundation' of stones and See also:stone See also:door-cases, like the palaces at Persepolis; and on these fragments of a procession of See also:tribute-bearers and the figure of a winged demon (wrongly considered as a portrait of Cyrus) are preserved. Outside the town are two tombs in the See also:form of towers and the tomb of Cyrus himself, a stone See also:house on a high substruction which rises in seven great steps, surrounded by a See also:court with columns; at its See also:side the remains of a guardhouse, in which the officiating Magians lived, are discernible. The ruins of the tomb absolutely correspond to the description of Aristobulus. See See also:Sir W. See also:Gore-See also:Ouseley, Travels in Persia (1811) ; See also:Morier, See also:Ker See also:Porter, See also:Rich and others; Texier, Description de l'Armenie et la Perse; Flandin and Coste, Voyage en Perse, vol. ii.; Stolze, Persepolis; Dieulafoy, L' See also:Art See also:antique de la Perse; and E. Herzfeld, " Pasargadae," in Beitrage zur See also:alien Geschichte, vol. viii.

(1908), who has in many points corrected and enlarged the earlier descriptions and has proved that the buildings as well as the sculptures are earlier than those of Persepolis, and are, therefore, built by Cyrus the Great. New photographs of the monuments are published by Fr. Sarre, Iranische Felsreliefs (tinter Mitwirkung von E. Herzfeld, See also:

Berlin, 1908). (En.

End of Article: PASARGADAE

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