City
Ctesiphon
El Madaien (Miller) · al-Ma`aridh (Barrington)
Listen to the story
Ctesiphon, on the Tigris, was founded by Alexander's successors and later raised by the Parthian kings to their winter residence, while they spent their summers in Ecbatana. The map gives it the familiar pair of towers. Roman armies sacked the city under Trajan, Lucius Verus and Septimius Severus, who alone carried off a hundred thousand prisoners, and by the Emperor Julian's day it had become a formidable fortress. Its ruins lie at El Madaien in Iraq, a name meaning 'the cities', because the site also takes in Seleucia and Coche, and they include a vast palace with an enormous vaulted arch. The road onward to Persepolis is missing from the map entirely.