Susa
soo'sa, the Biblical Shushan, a celebrated city of the ancient world. It was the capital of the kingdom of Elam and later one of the capitals of Persia. It was a favorite city of Darius. Alexander the Great marched thither from Babylon and siezed an incredible quantity of treasure--$57,000,000 worth, it is said, of gold and silver. The vision of Daniel came to him "at Shushan in the palace." The scene of the book of Esther is laid here, as well as that of the Apocryphal Susannah. The site of ancient Susa has been identified in modern times. The city was situated in a well watered, fruitful valley, about one hundred miles or more from the head of the Persian Gulf. In its prime Susa enjoyed a vast caravan trade.
Excavations by Loftus and others have resulted in the identification of the great palace mentioned in the book of Esther, and other imposing buildings. Cuneiform inscriptions of priceless value to the historian have been unearthed. A pillar of black stone eight feet high was found in January, 1902, on a mound in the Acropolis. It bore originally over three thousand lines of writing divided into forty-nine columns. It contains the so-called code of Hammurabi, a king of Babylonia who lived about 2200 B. C. This code is supposed to be 1,000 years older than the Mosaic Law. It is divided into 280 clauses, opening with the proclamation "Law and justice I established in the land. I made happy the human race in those days." The code contains regulations covering a wide range of topics. Witchcraft and enchantment, oaths, wages, commercial travelers, merchants' accounts, receipts, written contracts, irrigation canals, theft, bodily injury, murder, infidelity, the support of a wife, divorce, rules of evidence, and many other points of law are covered. The laws relating to agriculture and commercial matters are especially explicit. The phraseology is quite Scriptural in its style. The Scriptural, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," may be compared with the Susan code, "If any one destroy another's eye, his own eye shall be destroyed; if any one breaks another's bones, his own bones shall be broken; if any one knock out the tooth of an equal, his own tooth shall be knocked out." In case a wife became sick, the husband is permitted to take a second wife, but the "sick wife he shall not put away. In the home she shall dwell; as long as she lives, he shall sustain her."