PERSEPOLIS. – A Persian city (Iranian *Parsa*), built by Darius I Hystaspes (521–485 BC) and enlarged by Xerxes I (485–465 BC), who made it their spring royal residence. Its magnificent ruins, 110 km north of present-day Shiraz, have been explored by the mission led by E. Herzfeld. The excavations have confirmed the tradition of the burning of P. by Alexander the Great.
In 2 Maccabees 9:2, P. is called the city whose temple, dedicated to Nanaea (ibid., 1:13), Antiochus IV Epiphanes, shortly before his death, sought to plunder; in 1 Maccabees 6:1, such a city is not named, but is placed in Elam. It is commonly held that in 2 Maccabees 9:2, P. is a generic epithet for another city.
BIBL.: J. B. Bury–S. A. Cook–F. E. Adcock, *The Cambridge Ancient History*, IV, Cambridge 1926, pp. 4 seq., 189–93, 190–93 seq., 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 seq., 460 seq.; M. Grandclaudon, *Les Machabées* (*La Sainte Bible*, ed. L. Pirot, 8, 11), Paris 1951, pp. 61, 197.