City
Persepolis commercium Persarum
Istachar (Miller)
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Persepolis carries an unusual label on the Tabula: commercium Persarum, the trading place of the Persians. The map presents it purely as a centre of exchange and gives no hint that Darius the First founded it around 520 BC as a royal residence, ranking beside Susa. Its identification is Istakhr, about five kilometres from the palace terrace, where almost all the columns of the great audience hall were reused after Alexander's soldiers had plundered the city. From here a road branches off towards Central Asia, and the next entries on the map name former Persian provinces along the way to India.
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