aspadana

Updated: May 14, 2025

From these names of persons we may pass to those of places in Media, which equally admit of explanation from roots known to have existed either in Zend or in old Persian. Of these, Ecbatana, Bagistana, and Aspadana may be taken as convenient specimens.

George Rawlinson - The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 3: Media : The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.

Aspadana contains certainly as its first element the root acpa, "horse." The suffix dan may perhaps be a corruption of ctana, analogous to that which has produced Hama-dan from Hagma-ctan; or it may be a contracted form of danhu, or dairihu, "a-province," Aspadana having been originally the name of a district where horses were bred, and having thence become the name of its chief town.

George Rawlinson - The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 3: Media : The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.