Ut et Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiam everteret .... aiunt enim urbium quae usquam sunt ac toto orbe existunt felicissimam esse auroque ditissimam (Leo Diacon. apud Pagium, tom. iv. p. 34).
This splendid description suits only with Bagdad, and cannot possibly apply either to Hamadan, the true Ecbatana (D'Anville, Geog. Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 237), or Tauris, which has been commonly mistaken for that city. The name of Ecbatana, in the same indefinite sense, is transferred by a more classic authority (Cicero pro Lego Manilia, c. 4) to the royal seat of Mithridates, king of Pontus.