Tho most important of all were the two Ecbatanas--the northern and the southern--which seem to have stood respectively in the position of metropolis to the northern and the southern province.

Next to these may be named Rhages, which was probably from early times a very considerable place; while in the third rank may be mentioned Bagistan--rather perhaps a palace than a town--Concobar, Adrapan, Aspadan, Charax, Kudrus, Hyspaostes, Urakagabarna, etc.
The southern Ecbatana or Agbatana--which the Medes and Persians themselves knew as Hagmatan--was situated, as we learn from Polybius and Diodorus, on a plan at the foot of Mont Orontes, a little to the east of the Zagros range.

The notices of these authors, combined with those of Eratosthenes, Isidore, Pliny, Arrian, and others, render it as nearly certain as possible that the site was that of the modern town of Hamadan, the name of which is clearly but a slight corruption of the true ancient appellation.

[PLATE I., Fig.

2.] Mount Orontes is to be recognized in the modern Elwend or Erwend--a word etymologically identical with _Oront-es_--which is a long and lofty mountains standing out like a buttress from the Zagros range, with which it is connected towards the north-west, while on every other side it stands isolated, sweeping boldly down upon the flat country at its base.