We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In an article published some 12 years ago, the present writer proposed a location in Iran for the lost Parthian capital named by the Greeks Hecatompylos. This site, called in later days Shahr-i Qūmis, had been located with the help of references given by Apollodorus of Artemita (apud Strabo XI, 9, 1). These describe the Caspian Gates as located 500 stades from the city of Rhagae (modern Ray), and Hecatompylos as a further 1,260 stades beyond the Gates. Since the sites of the first two locations are known, the actual distance of 82 km.
1 Hansman, John, “The problems of Qūmis”, JRAS, 1968, 111–39.Google Scholar
2 Hansman, John and Stronach, David, “Excavations at Shari-i Qūmis, 1967”, JRAS, 1970, 41, 47;Google ScholarHansman, John and Stronach, David, “Excavations at Shahr-i Qūmis, 1971”, JRAS, 1974, 18–19. Other carbon dates from Qumis not as yet published, confirm these findings.Google Scholar
3 Brunt, P. A. (ed.), Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, London, 1976, Appendix VIII, 495–7.Google Scholar
4 Marquait, J., Philologus, Supplementband X, 1905, 22.Google Scholar
5 Schmidt, E., Excavations at Tepe Hissar, Damghan, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1937, 11–17;Google ScholarSchmidt, E., Flights over ancient cities of Iran, Chicago, 1940, 34–5.Google Scholar
6 Brunt, , 496–7.Google Scholar
7 Adamec, L., Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, II, Graz, 1973, 76.Google Scholar
8 On Alexander's route beyond Prophthasia see, for example, Tarn, W. W., Alexander the Great, II, Sources and Studies, Cambridge, 1948, map facing 478.Google Scholar
9 Brunt, , 500.Google Scholar
10 Droysen, J. G., Geschichte des Hellenismus, III, Gotha, 1879, 2, 217–20.Google Scholar
11 Bernard, P., “Les noms anciens de Qandahar”, Studio Iranica, III, 1974, 172.Google Scholar
12 Brunt, , 502–3.Google Scholar
13 Brunt, , 496.Google Scholar
14 von Stahl, A., “Notes on the march of Alexander the Great from Ecbatana to Hyrcania”, JRGS, 1924, 325.Google Scholar
15 Hansman, John and Stronach, David, “A Sasanian repository at Shahr-i Qūmis”, JRAS, 1970, 151, n. 20.Google Scholar
16 Badian, E. in a book-review (Gnomon, 1974, 518), has also confused the open site of Shahr-i Qūmis with the totally different hill-bound location for Hecatompylos proposed by von Stahl.Google Scholar
