THE ANCIENT DUSTAJERD. 
215 
from some disgust which Khosroo Purviz took against A1 Maidan, 
(for many generations the winter capital of his ancestors,) he did 
not approach it for the chief part of his reign ; and history informs 
us, that in consequence of this dislike, he made Artimeta (Dusta- 
jerd) his royal city. According to D’Anville, “ it was situated 
beyond the Tigris, about sixty miles north of the other capital.” 
Ctesiphon, the original of A1 Maidan, was built on the eastern 
bank of the Tigris, directly opposite to the Grecian city of Seleucia; 
and it arose from the long establishment of a Persian encampment 
on the spot, which, by the judicious management of its commander, 
drew all the supplies of the country to himself, and by that 
means gradually converted canvass booths into brick dwellings, 
and a temporary station into a lasting town. It is said, that 
Orodes, one of the Arsacidsean kings, was the first who sur¬ 
rounded it with walls, and made it one of his capitals. Both it, 
and its neighbour Seleucia, were afterwards severally sacked by 
several Roman generals ; but it appears that Ardashir Babigan, 
(the father of the Sassanian line,) seeing the importance of its 
situation to the then position of the empire, so restored these 
two half-demolished towns, and united them under the one 
appellation of Al Maidan , or The Cities , that he has been deemed 
the absolute founder of the place. It afterwards continued a 
favourite capital with most of his dynasty, till the race perished 
in the person of Yezdijerd, and Al Maidan was rendered a heap 
of ruins by the fanatic Arabs, in the beginning of the seventh 
century. 
With respect to the described distance between the situation 
of Dustajerd, and the shores of the Tigris, and therefore its 
grounds of identity with Kesra-Shirene, I shall be a better judge 
when I arrive on those banks myself; but from what I have 
