pothos.org

I saw this on rogueclassicism. Hegmataneh is Ecbatana.

Alexander at Hegmataneh

I don't know what to make of this but I thought it interesting enough to post. But besides not being mentioned in any sources, which of course doesn't necessarily mean anything, a problem I see with this story is that I don't recall that it took a year to capture Ecbatana. But I would have to check on that.

Edit:
Here's the original link:

Excavations prove Iran's Hegmataneh legend

Aha - you put it as "floods", I put it as "besieged", but we both saw the same article!

But I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't remember Alexander taking a year to take Ecbatana!

ATB

Sorry Marcus, in my haste I did not see that you had already posted this.

Yes, I thought the taking of Ecbatana was rather quick. But I will have to check.

But I would like to read these accounts that were mentioned:

"...it is also backed up by accounts attributed to an Assyrian king"

But I wouldn't know where to look for them, or if they're even in English.

Tantalus wrote: "...it is also backed up by accounts attributed to an Assyrian king"

OK, wait a minute. I'm not sure why he says "Assyrian king". Any Assyrian king would have lived and died long before Alexander came along. Isn't that right? Or am I missing something?

I think this is a confusion of Alexander's entry into Cyropolis, I think, via a dry water course and an earlier Assyrian ruse whereby the river was dammed as it exited the city causing it to flood and undermine the walls, cut to atrocity - cant recall the town will have to look it up but don't think it was Ecbatana.

Darius left Ecbatana in advance of Alexander's approach leaving Bisthanes to hold the city, but Bisthanes surrendered without a fight.

Maybe an Assyrian king besieged Ecbatana in a previous century, and that's why the story's become confused and attributed to Alexander.

Derek

agesilaos wrote:I think this is a confusion of Alexander's entry into Cyropolis, I think, via a dry water course and an earlier Assyrian ruse whereby the river was dammed as it exited the city causing it to flood and undermine the walls, cut to atrocity...

derek wrote:Maybe an Assyrian king besieged Ecbatana in a previous century, and that's why the story's become confused and attributed to Alexander.

I would suspect you guys are right, that some story has become confused with another over time.

Intially I was somewhat excited about this. I was hoping that some new information about Alexander had come to light.