PERSEPOLI. - Persian city (Iranian Parsa), built by Dario I Istaspe (521–485 B.C.) and enlarged by Serse I (485–465 B.C.), who made it their spring royal residence. Its superb ruins, 110 km north of present-day Širāz, were
explored by the mission directed by E. Herzfeld. The excavations confirmed the tradition of the burning of P. by Alessandro Magno.
In II Mach. 9, 2, P. is said to be the city whose temple, dedicated to Nanea (ibid. 1, 13), Antioco IV Epifane wished to plunder shortly before his death; in I Mach. 6, 1 this city is not named, but is placed in Elam. It is commonly held that in II Mach. 9, 2 P. is a generic designation for another city.
BIRL.: 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, Firenze 1948, pp. 374, 430 f., 460 f.; M. Grandclaudon, Les Machabées (La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 8, 11), Parigi 1951, pp. 61, 197. Francesco Spadafora