Book 15
3.2
It is said to have been founded by Tithonus, the father of Memnon. Its compass was 120 stadia. Its shape was oblong. The Acropolis was called Memnonium. The Susians have the name also of Cissii. AeschylusPersae, v. 17 and 118. calls the mother of Memnon, Cissia. Memnon is said to be buried near Paltus in Syria, by the river Badas, as Simonides says in his Memnon, a dithyrambic poem among the Deliaca. The wall of the city, the temples and palaces, were constructed in the same manner as those of the Babylonians, of baked brick and asphaltus, as some writers relate. Polycletus however says, that its circumference was 200 stadia, and that it was without walls.
3.3
They embellished the palace at Susa more than the rest, but they did not hold in less veneration and honour the palaces at Persepolis and Pasargadae.Pasa or Fesa. For in these stronger and hereditary places were the treasure-house, the riches, and tombs of the Persians. There was another palace at Gabae, in the upper parts of Persia, and another on the sea-coast, near a place called Taoce.Taug or Taüog, on the river Grâ.
3.3
This was the state of things during the empire of the Persians. But afterwards different princes occupied different palaces; some, as was natural, less sumptuous, after the power of Persis had been reduced first by the Macedonians, and secondly still more by the Parthians. For although the Persians have still a kingly government, and a king of their own, yet their power is very much diminished, and they are subject to the king of Parthia.
3.4
Susa is situated in the interior, upon the river Choaspes, beyond the bridge; but the territory extends to the sea: and the sea-coast of this territory, from the borders of the Persian coast nearly as far as the mouths of the Tigris, is a distance of about 3000 stadia.
