Gazaca

GAZACA(Γάζακα, Strab. 11. p. 523), the Palace of the Parthians, situated in a plain in Atropatene. The name in the earlier editions of Strabo was always written Gaza, but Groskurd detected the error in the MS., and proposed the reading Γάζακαfor Γάζα καὶ, which has been adopted by Kramer, and is doubtless the correct one. The name is connected with Gaza, and is, perhaps, a modification of it. It is probably connected with the Persian Ghaz, a place of treasure. (For the name, see Ptol. 6.18; Ammian. 23.6, where it is written Agazaca; Theoph. Chronogr. pp. 257, 270; Cedren. p. 412; Niceph. Patriarch. ep. 12; Hist. Misc. 18.16; Theoph. Simocatt. Hist. Maur. 5.8, 10; and GAUZACA). Pliny speaks of a place he calls Gazae, at a distance of 450 M. P. from Artaxata; this should probably be corrected to Gazaca (6.13, 16).

If Colonel Rawlinson be right, as we think he is, in his theory with respect to Ecbatana, this town underwent many curious changes of name, according to the rulers who successively occupied it. [ECBATANA]