PERSEPOLIS. - Persian city (Iranian Parsa), built by Darius I Hystaspes (521-485 B.C.) and enlarged by Xerxes I (485-465 B.C.), who made it their royal spring residence. Its superb ruins, 110 km. north of present-day Shiraz, have been explored by the mission directed by E. Herzfeld. The excavations have confirmed the tradition of the burning of P. by Alexander the Great.

In II Macc. 9:2, P. is said to be the city whose temple, dedicated to Nanea (ibid. 1:13), Antiochus IV Epiphanes, shortly before his death, wished to plunder; in I Macc. 6:1 such a city is not named, but is placed in Elam. It is commonly held that in II Macc. 9:2 P. is a generic appellation for another city.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: J. B. Bury-S. A. Cook-F. E. Adcock, The Cambridge ancient history, IV, Cambridge 1926, pp. 4 ff., 180-93, 199 f., 209; A. Godard, Persépolis, in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, 1946, pp. 260-70; A. Vaccari, La S. Bibbia, III, Florence 1948, pp. 374, 430 f., 460 f.; M. Grandclaudon, Les Machabées (La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 8, 11), Paris 1951, pp. 61, 197.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec9_persepoli, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Persepoli}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1202--1203}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/persepoli} }

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Persepolis

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