Road station

Europos

Ray (Barrington)

Europos is the Greek name that Seleucus the First gave to Rhagai when he refounded it, an old Iranian town at Ray near Tehran; the inscription of Darius the First at Behistun already calls it Raga. Ancient writers said the name came from a violent earthquake, but it is surely an old native word. Darius captured the Median rebel Phraortes here in 521 BC, and in the summer of 330 BC Alexander the Great rested his troops here for five days while pursuing Darius the Third. Later the Parthian kings spent their springs here, and the Avesta names Rhaga as the birthplace of Zarathustra.

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