Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) Ancient ruined city on the Tigris, near Baghdad, in present-day Iraq. Capital of Parthia and later of the Sassanid Persian Empire, abandoned in 7th and 8th centuries.
Wikipedia
Ctesiphon was the capital city of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires (247 BC–224 AD and 224–651 respectively). It was one of the great cities of late ancient Mesopotamia. Its most conspicuous structure remaining today is the great archway of Ctesiphon.
It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris across from where the Greek city of Seleucia stood and northeast of ancient Babylon. Today, the remains of the city lie in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, approximately south of the city of Baghdad.
Ctesiphon was the largest city in the world from 570 AD, until its fall in 637 AD, during the Muslim conquests.
Ctesiphon (, Ktēsiphôn) was an orator in Athens during the reign of Alexander the Great. He is best known for sparking the controversy that led to Demosthenes' speech On the Crown and Aeschines' speech Against Ctesiphon.
In 336 BC, Alexander the Great's empire was spreading, and many in Athens were opposed to the ongoing wars. Among the most outspoken was the orator Demosthenes. In 336 BC, Ctesiphon proposed that Athens honor Demosthenes for services to the city by presenting him with a golden crown. This proposal became a political issue, and in 330 BC, Aeschines prosecuted Ctesiphon on charges of legal irregularities. In his most brilliant speech, On the Crown, Demosthenes effectively defended Ctesiphon and attacked vehemently those who backed Alexander the Great's empire. As to legal irregularities, Aeschines prosecuted Ctesiphon for having violated the law in three points:
- For making false allegations in a state document.
- For unlawfully conferring a crown to a state official (Demosthenes) who had not yet rendered a report of his term of office.
- For unlawfully offering the crown at the festival called Dionysia.
Demosthenes won the legal battle with Aeschines, although Aeschines' legal objections to the crowning were probably valid.
Ctesiphon may refer to:
- Ctesiphon, a city in Mesopotamia that was intermittently the capital of the Arsacid and Sassanid Empires
- Ctesiphon of Vergium, a 1st-century missionary and the patron saint of Berja, Spain
- Ctesiphon of Athens, an Athenian orator of the 4th century BCE
Usage examples of "ctesiphon".
Seleucia and Ctesiphon had surrendered almost without resistance, and the enemy, distracted by warfare on their own eastern borders, seemed unable to resist the Roman advance.
It is a picture of one of the so-called Seven Wonders of the World, the Arch of Ctesiphon in Iraq.
First reports were magnificent: Babylon conquered, the Tigris crossed, Ctesiphon fallen.
My tomb on the bank of the Tiber reproduces, on a gigantic scale, the ancient vaults of the Appian Way, but its very proportions transform it, recalling Ctesiphon and Babylon with their terraces and towers by which man seeks to climb nearer the stars.
She much preferred to learn her history seated on rich cushions at their palace in Ctesiphon, listening to bards recounting the epics of the Aryans.
When Merena arrived at Ctesiphon to warn the governor of the oncoming tidal wave, the man responded with derision.
By the time the newly-released waters of the Euphrates reached Ctesiphon, they took the form of a sudden five-foot high surge in elevation rather than an actual wall of water.
Most of my advisers urged me to make a stand at Ctesiphon, taking advantage of its tall, stone walls.
He had been in the capital at Ctesiphon, like all his brothers and half-brothers, plotting to seize the throne after the death of the ailing Emperor Kavad.
Among their exploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseasonably interrupted the more important series of domestic revolutions, we shall only mention the repeated calamities of the two great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.
Their splendid victories over the Great King, whom they twice pursued as far as the gates of Ctesiphon, laid the foundations of their united fame and power.