Susa
(
τὰ Σοῦσα; Old Test. Shushan; ShusPers. ). The winter
residence of the Persian kings. It stood in the district Cissia of the province Susiana, on
the eastern bank of the river Choaspes. Its name in old Persian signifies
“Lily,” and that flower is said to abound in the plain in which the city
stood. Susa was of a quadrangular form, 120 (or, according to others, 200) stadia in
circuit, and without fortifications; but it had a strongly fortified citadel, containing the
palace and treasury of the Persian kings. The Greek name of this citadel, Memnonicé
or Memnonium, is perhaps a corruption of the Aramaic
Maaninon, “a
fortress;” and this easy confusion of terms gave rise to the fable that the city was
founded by Tithonus, the father of Memnon. An historical tradition ascribes its erection to
Darius, the son of Hystaspes, but it existed already in the time of Daniel (Dan. viii. 2).
There is, however, a difficulty as to the identification of the Shushan of Daniel with the
Susa of the Greeks. The climate of Susa was very hot, and hence the choice of it for the
winter palace. It was here that Alexander and his generals celebrated their marriage with the
Persian princesses in B.C. 325, but the city declined after Babylon became the capital of
Alexander and his successors. In B.C. 315 it was taken by Antiochus, who found in it a vast
amount of treasure. The site of Susa is now marked by extensive mounds, on which are found
fragments of bricks and broken pottery, with cuneiform inscriptions. The ruins of the ancient
city cover a space of nearly three square miles, and they have been carefully explored by
Loftus, Churchill, Dieulafoy, and others. The principal remains that still exist are four vast
platforms like those at
Persepolis (q.v.), with
traces of a gigantic colonnade with a frontage of over 340 feet and a depth of 240 feet. The
palace of Darius Hystaspis has also been excavated, and from it many artistic treasures taken
to the Louvre. See Jane Dieulafoy,
La Perse, la Chaldée, et la
Susiane (Paris, 1887); id.
À Suse (Paris,
1888); Marcel Dieulafoy,
L'Acropole de Suse (Paris,
1890-92).