Shushan in Smiths Bible Dictionary
(a lily), is said to have received its name from the
abundance of the lily (shushan or shushanah) in its
neighborhood. It was originally the capital of the country
called in Scripture Elam, and by the classical writers Susis
or Susiana. In the time of Daniel Susa was in the possession
of the Babylonians, to whom Elam had probably passed at the
division of the Assyrian empire made by Cyaxares and
Nabopolassar. Da 8:2 The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus
transferred Susa to the Persian dominion; and it was not
long before the Achaemenian princes determined to make it
the capital of their whole empire and the chief place of
their own residence. According to some writers the change
was made by Cyrus; according to others it had at any rate
taken place before the death of Cambyses; but, according to
the evidence of the place itself and of the other
Achaemenian monuments, it would seem most probable that the
transfer was really the work of Darius Hystaspes. Nehemiah
resided here. Ne 1:1 Shushan was situated on the Ulai or
Choaspes. It is identified with the modern Sus or Shush, its
ruins are about three miles in circumference. (Here have
been found the remains of the great palace build by Darius,
the father of Xerxes, in which and the surrounding buildings
took place the scenes recorded in the life of Esther. The
great central hall was 343 feet long by 244 feet wide. The
king's gate, says Schaff, where Mordecai sat, "was probably
a hall 100 feet square, 150 feet from the northern portico.
Between these two was probably the inner court, where Esther
appeared before the king." --ED.)
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