Neh 1:1 in the year twenty, when I was in S, capital
Est 1:2 which was in S capital of the kingdom
Est 3:15 but the city of S was moved
Susa (Heb. Shûshan, “lily”; Aram. shûshankaye’, “Sussites” (Est. 1 to 9). Nehemiah was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I in that city (Neh 1:1). He is identified with Shus, on the shores of the Karun River in Iran.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, ARQU CITY
sit, a4, 598, 263
vet, This name would suggest to the Hebrews the large number of lilies that grow in the region. Important residential city of the kings of Persia (Neh. 1:1; Est. 1:2), in the province of Elam, on the river Ulai (Dan. 8:2). The king had warehouses there. Assurbanipal took possession of this city during a campaign around the years 642-639 BC Later, it was subjected to the kings of Chaldea. The royal family, to which Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, belonged, ruled over Ansan, which seems to have been a district to the east of Elam. When Cyrus had founded the Persian empire, he raised Susa to the rank of capital, an honor he shared with Ecbatana and Babylon. When Alexander the Great entered Susa (in the year 331 BC) he seized the great treasures that were kept in the city. The year 317 BC, Antigonus took it again. Susa then began its decline, but later resisted the Muslim invasion. This city is located on the Karkeh, about 240 km from the Persian Gulf. Its most important ruins are located within a space of about 2 km long by almost 1.5 wide. The perimeter measures about 5 km. If the scattered ruins are included a little further, the perimeter then reaches between 9 and 11 km. The complex is made up of a series of tells, the main one of which has been explored since the period of 1884-1886 a French expedition began some excavations. Jacques de Morgan discovered the Code of Hammurabi on this tell in 1901. The royal palace has also been excavated, wonderfully decorated with colored enamel bricks and numerous relief motifs. It is quite possible that this was the palace in which the festivals and banquets of the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther took place (Esther 1:2, 3, 9; 2:18; etc.).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Famous city of lower Mesopotamia, ancient capital of Elam, where the Persian kings resided for a time (Nehem. 1.1; Esther 1.2). It was conquered by the Persians in 596 BC and made the Capital by Darius I.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
Ancient city, whose ruins are found between the Kerja and Dez rivers on the eastern bank of the Sha`ur, about 350 km E. of Babylon. In this place there are four main mounds. On the slope of the acropolis, the most important of these mounds, is the modern town of Shush. Susa, or a fortified part of the city, “Susa the castle”, was the scene of one of the visions of the prophet Daniel (Da 8:2), the setting for the events narrated in the book of Esther (Est 1:2 , 5, 6; 2:3, 5, 8, 21; 3:2, 15; 8:14; 9:12-15) and where Nehemiah served as cupbearer during the reign of Artaxerxes (Longimanus, the son of Xerxes I ). (Ne 1:1; 2:1; see CASTLE; ELAM No. 1; PERSIA, PERS.)
There are indications that Susa was the capital of ancient Elam. In the seventh century a. CE, King Asnapar (Ashurbanipal) of Assyria conquered Susa and took the city’s inhabitants to Samaria. (Ezra 4:9, 10) Under Persian rule, Susa was a royal city. In the fourth century a. EC fell to Alexander the Great and began its decline. Currently, the only thing that remains in that place is a pile of ruins.
Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of a palace that, apparently, is the one that the Persian king Darius I began to build and his son Xerxes I (possibly the Ahasuerus husband of Esther) finished. Colored glazed brick panels and stone capitals give a small glimpse of its former glory. An inscription of Darius I on the construction of the palace reads: “This is the hadisch palace that I built in Susa. Their ornaments were brought from afar. A very deep excavation was made in the earth, until I reached a foundation of rock. When the excavation was done, it was filled with gravel, on the one hand up to 18 m. deep and on the other up to 9 m. On that gravel I built a palace. And digging up the earth, filling it with gravel, and forming mud bricks into molds, that’s what the Babylonians did. Cedar wood was brought from a mountain called Lebanon; the Assyrians brought it to Babylon, and from Babylon the Carians and the Ionians brought it to Susa. From Gandhara and Carmania teak wood was brought; the gold used here was brought from Sardis and Bactria; the stone, lapis lazuli and carnelian, were brought from Sogdiana; turquoise was brought from Korasmia; silver and copper were brought from Egypt. The ornamentation with which the wall was adorned was brought from Ionia; ivory was brought from Ethiopia, India and Arachosia; the stone columns were brought from a place called Abiradush, from Elam. The craftsmen who carved the stone were Ionians and Sardians; the goldsmiths who worked the gold were Medes and Egyptians; those who made the inlays were Sardians and Egyptians; those who worked with bricks (with figures) were Babylonians; and the men who adorned the wall were Medes and Egyptians. Here in Susa a splendid work was organized; very splendid it turned out to be† . (AT Olmstead’s History of the Persian Empire, 1948, p. 168; see ARCHEOLOGY.)
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary