Shuriasa^warnen, in Hindu mythology, is a dev- otee now living, who is destined to become the ruler of the great age which shall follow upon the present, over which Vaivassada presides. In that age Vishmi will ap|K'ar in his tenth Avatar. — Vollmer, Worterb. d. My-
thul. S. V.
Shurtleff, William, a Congregational minister of Pctrtsmouth, X. II., who died in 1747, aged about sixty. He published a number of Sernwux and two or three religious pamjihlets (172(!-41). See AUibone, Diet, of J>ril. (tiiil .1 iiiir. A ut/iors, s. v.
Shiirtliff, AsAPii, a minister of the ^lethodist Epis- copal (.'hurcli, came from Canada while yet a young man, and settled in Easton, Washington Co., N. V. There lie iniited with tlie Church, and was for many years an active and useful local preacher. In lH,j;5 he was received into the Troy C!onfcrence, and served as a travelling preacher f<ir eleven years. In IHiU he took a supernumerary relation, in which, and that of a super- annuate, he continued initil his death, in Easton, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1873. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1873, 1). CH.
Shushan. Sec Lii.v.
Shu'shan (Ileb. Shushan', ''■^^Va; Sept. Sovrrar and ^uuaa ; Vulg. Susa), or Slsa, one of the most im-
portant towns in tlie East, in which the kings of Per- sia had their winter residence (Dan. viii, 2; Neh. i, 1; Estli. i, 2, ii). It is said to have received its name from the abundance of the lily {Shiislicin.oT Shushaiuih) in its neighborhood (Athen. xii. .t13). (In the following ac- count we chiefly follow that found in Smith's Did. (f the liible.)
I. History. — Susa was originally the capital of the country called in Scripture Elam, and by the classical writers sometimes Cissia (KuTTiff), sometimes Susis, or Susiana. See Ei.am. Its foundation is thought to date froiii a time anterior to Chedorlaomer, as the re- mains found on the site have often a character of very high antiquity. The first distinct mention of the town that has been as yet found is in the inscriptions of Asshur-bani-pal, the son and successor of Esar-haddon, who states that he took the place, and exhibits a groinul-jilan of it upon his sculi)tures (Layard, Nin.dnd B(d). p. 452, 4.o3). The date of this monument is about B.C. ()(J0. We next tind Susa in the possession of the Babylonians, to whom Elam had j^robably passed at the division of the Assyrian empire made by Cyaxares and Nabopolassar. In the last year of Belshazzar (B.C. 63(j), Daniel, while still a Babylonian subject, is there on the king's business, and "at Shushan in the palace" sees his famous vision of the ram and he-goat (Dan. viii, 2). The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus transferred Susa to the Persian dominion ; and it was not long be- fore the Achajmenian princes determined to make it the capital of their whole empire and the chief place of their own residence. According to some writers (Xenoph. Cyroj). viii, 6, 22 ; Strabo, xv, 3, 2), the change was made by Cyrus; according to others (Ctesias, Pers. Exc. 9 ; Herod, iii, 30, 65, 70), it had at any rate taken place before the death of Cambyses; but, according to the evidence of the place itself and of the other Ach«- menian monuments, it would seem most probable that the transfer was really the work of Darius Hystaspis, who is found to have been (as Pliny says, //. A', vi, 27) the foimder of the great palace tliere — the building so graphically described in the book of Esther (i, 5, G). The reasons whicli induced the change are tolerably apparent. After the conijuest of Babylonia and Egypt, the western provinces of the empire had become by far the most important, and the court could no longer be conveniently fixed east of Zagros, either at Ecbatana (Hamadan) or at Pasargada; (Alurgaub), which were cut off from the Jlesopotamian jilain by the difficulty <if the passes for fully one half of the year. Not oidy were the passes difficult, but they were in the posses- sion of semi -independent tribes, who levied a toll on all passengers, even the Persian kings themselves (Stra- bo, XV, 3, 4). It was necessary to find a cajiital west of the mountains, and here Babylon and Susa present- ed themselves, each with its peculiar advantages. Da- rius probably preferred Susa, first, on account of its vi- cinity to Persia (ibid, xv, 3, 2) ; secondly, because it was cooler than Babylon, being nearer the mountain- chain ; and, thirdly, because of the excellence of the water there (Geof/niph. Joiirn. ix, 70). Susa accord- ingly became the metropolis of Persia, and is recognised as such by yEschyhis (J'e7's. 16, 124, etc.), Herodotus (v, 25, 49. etc.), Ctesias {I'ers. Kxc. passim), Strabo (xv, 3, 2), and almost all the best writers. The court must have resided there during the greater ]iart of the y<'ar, only (pdtting it regularly for ICcbatana or Persepolis in the height of simnner, and (lerhaps sometimes leaving it for Babylon in the depth of winter (see Hawlinson, //f ?•(«/. iii, 250). Susa retained its pre-eminence to the period of the Macedonian concpiest, when Alexander found there above twelve millions sterling and alj the regalia of the (Jreat King (^Xrunw, Exp. Alex, iii. Hi). After this it declined. The preference of Alexander for Bah^'lon caused the neglect of Susa by his succes- sors, none of whom ever made it their capital city. We hear of it once only in their wars, when it falls into the power of Antigonus (B.C. 315), who obtains treasure