The royal household. Although Susa was the Achaemenid administrative capital, where royal decrees were issued and provincial officials sent their reports and where visiting dignitaries were received. the Greek authors noted that the king and his imperial court moved from one city to the next, depending on the season. Autumn and winter were spent in Babylon, spring in Susa, and summer in Ecbatana, but the great national holidays were celebrated at Persepolis (Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.6.22; idem, Anabasis 3.5.15; Strabo, 11.13.1), and the coronation palace was at Pasargadae (Plutarch, Artoxerxes 3).‘The Greeks texts are in agreement with that, although there is little consensus among the Greeks on the detail of exactly which capital was used or when. The Greek sources have been vigorously analysed by Christopher Tuplin (1998b), who sets them against the Persepolitan evidence for court migrations, and can be summarised as in Table 1. The Greeks unanimously agree on a residency in Media (the cool north of Iran) for the court during the summer months — a logical place to be, far from the scorching heat of southern Iran (and especially around Susa if we follow Strabo 15.3.10 and Diodorus 19.28.1-2, 19.39.1) — but beyond that it is impossible to work out the reality of the royal seasonal migration as presented in the Greek sources, so that there can be ‘no compelling evidence to prefer one variant to another’ (Tuplin 1998b: 72).King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 bce, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Edinburgh University Press, 2013 The Great King in His Empire: the Movable Court 81 Table 1. Greek sources on the migrations of the Persian court Time of Year Xenophon Plutarch DioChrysostom Athenaeus Aelian (C6) (C7,C8) (C9) (C10) (C11) Spring Susa Susa “ Babylon = Summer Ecbatana = Media Ecbatana Ecbatana — Ecbatana Autumn = _ = Persepolis - Winter Babylon Babylon Babylon, Susa, — Susa Susa BactraThe Nomadic King Here is how Xenophon explains the origins of the court migrations: Cyrus himself made hishome in the centre of his domain, and in the winter season he spent seven months in Babylon, for there the climate is warm; in the spring he spent three months in Susa, and in the height of summer two months in Ecbatana. By so doing, they say, he en- joyed the warmth and coolness of perpetual springc-time. (Cyr. VIIL6.226) The same explanation is found in Strabo (XV.1.16) and Athenaeus (XII.513f), who sees in this custom an illustration of the luxury surrounding the life of the Great King: ‘The first men in history to become notorious for luxurious (trypht) living were the Persians, whose kings wintered in Susa and summered in Ecbatana. . .. In Persepolis they spent the autumn, and in Babylon the remaining portion of the year. So also the Parthian kings live in springtime at Rhagae [Media], but they winter at Babylon, (and pass) the rest of the year (in Hecatompylus [Parthia}).