pothos.org

Dear all,

This is probably laziness on my part as much as anything else, but I wonder if anyone can, of the top of the head, indicate where the city of Elymais in Persia was. It occurs in the first book of Maccabees:

King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elymais in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold. Its temple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned over the Greeks. So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not because his plan had become known to the citizens and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great disappointment left there to return to Babylon.
I Maccabees, 6:1-5

I'm sure I could find it in time, but there's such collective knowledge and brainpower amongst Pothosians (note how sycophantic I can be when I want to be!) that I thought I might cut a few corners.

ATB

Wasn't that supposed to be Elam? Susa, thereabouts.

edit: this got me curious and I went poking about.

I found this interesting. The coins are really neat!

http://www.parthia.com/parthia_coins_elymais.htm

athenas owl wrote:Wasn't that supposed to be Elam? Susa, thereabouts.

Well, after posting my original query, I also did a bit of digging about. You see, my immediate assumption was that Elymais was the same as Elam - the problem was the identification of it as a city; so I did wonder whether Susa was meant.

Then I discovered that there is another possible reading of the Maccabees passage, in which it says that "in Elymais there was a city that ...". In which case, it might have been Susa (or, indeed, another city) that was meant, and that there was no city called Elymais.

Still, in case anyone knows different ... I'll keep this question open!

ATB