Ezra 6:2

“And there was found at Achmetha, etc.] Which Jarchi and Aben Ezra take to be the name of a vessel in which letters and writings were put for safety; but it was no doubt the name of a place; the Vulgate Latin version has it Ecbatana; and so Josephus f53; which was the name of a city in Media, where the kings of that country had their residence in the summer time f54; for it has its name from heat f55; the Persian kings dwelt at Shushan in the winter, and at Ecbatana in the summer f56; hence they are compared by Aelian f57 to cranes, birds of passage, because of their going to and from the above places: in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, here was found a roll; which was the…”

“Achmetha--long supposed to be the capital of Greater Media (the Ecbatana of classical, the Hamadan of modern times), [is] at the foot of the Elwund range of hills, where, for its coolness and salubrity, Cyrus and his successors on the Persian throne established their summer residence. There was another city, however, of this name, the Ecbatana of Atropatene, and the most ancient capital of northern Media, and recently identified by COLONEL RAWLINSON in the remarkable ruins of Takht-i-Soleiman. Yet as everything tends to show the attachment of Cyrus to his native city, the Atropatenian Ecbatana, rather than to the stronger capital of Greater Media, COLONEL RAWLINSON is inclined to think that…”

““Achmetha” is the “Ecbatana,” or “Agbatana,” of the Greeks, the Persian name for which, as we find in the Behistun Inscription, was HaGMaTANa. We must suppose that, when Babylon had been searched in vain, the other cities which possessed record-offices were visited, and the decree looked for in them. Ecbatana was the capital of Cyrus. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Achmetha - The royal city of the Medes and Persians. Ezra 6:3”

“6:2 The fortress at Ecbatana, the king’s summer home, was located about 300 miles northeast of Babylon. This suggests that Cyrus wrote the scroll in the summer of 538 BC. • Media was a mountainous area north of Persia and east of Assyria. This area is now inhabited by the Kurds (descendants of the Medes). • Texts introduced by the term Memorandum tended to be summaries that listed the main facts of an event for the royal archives (cp. 1:9-10).”

“at Achmetha: or, at Ecbatana, or, in a coffer, אחמתא \[Strong's H712\], probably from the Persian Mx, kham, "a house for a summer residence," with a prefix, א, aleph, and the Chaldee termination )t, tha, most likely denotes Ecbatana, as the Vulgate and Josephus read, the summer residence of the Persian monarchs. It was situated in a mountainous region at the foot of mount Orontes, or Jasonius, according to Ammianus, on the southern confines of Media and Persia, and according to Pliny, 750 miles from Seleucia the Great, 20 miles from the Caspian passes, 450 miles from Susa, and the same from Gaze Atropatene, and in lat. 37 degrees 45 min., long. 88 degrees, according to Ptolemy. The building…”