volume 4, chapters 13-14.

See, also, BELGÆ.

ECBATANA.

"The Southern Ecbatana or Agbatana,--which the Medes and Persians themselves knew as Hagmatán,--was situated, as we learn from Polybius and Diodorus, on a plain at the foot of Mount Orontes, a little to the east of the Zagros range. The notices of these authors ... and others, render it as nearly certain as possible that the site was that of the modern town of Hamadan. ... The Median capital has never yet attracted a scientific expedition. ... The chief city of northern Media, which bore in later times the names of Gaza, Gazaca, or Canzaca, is thought to have been also called Ecbatana, and to have been occasionally mistaken by the Greeks for the southern or real capital."

_G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Media, chapter 1._

ECCELINO, OR EZZELINO DI ROMANO, The tyranny of, and the crusade against.

See VERONA: A. D. 1236-1259.

ECCLESIA. The general legislative assembly of citizens in ancient Athens and Sparta.

_G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3._

ALSO IN: _G. Grote, History of Greece, chapter 31._

See ATHENS: B. C. 445-429.

ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL, The.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1850.

ECENI, OR ICENI, The.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 61.

ECGBERHT, King of Wessex, A. D. 800-836.

ECKMÜHL, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JANUARY-JUNE).

ECNOMUS, Naval battle of (B. C. 256).

See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.

ECORCHEURS, Les.

In the later period of the Hundred Years War, after the death of the Maid of Orleans, when the English were being driven from France and the authority of the king was not yet established, lawless violence prevailed widely. "Adventurers spread themselves over the provinces under a name, 'the Skinners,' Les Ecorcheurs, which sufficiently betokens the savage nature of their outrages, if we trace it to even its mildest derivation, stripping shirts, not skins."

_E. Smedley, History of France, part 1, chapter 14._

ECTHESIS OF HERACLIUS.

See MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY.

ÉCU, The order of the.

See BOURBON, THE HOUSE OF.

ECUADOR: Aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.

ECUADOR: The aboriginal kingdom of Quito and its conquest by the Peruvians and the Spaniards.

"Of the old Quitu nation which inhabited the highlands to the north and south of the present capital, nothing is known to tradition but the name of its last king, Quitu, after whom his subjects were probably called. His domains were invaded and conquered by the nation of the Caras, or Carans, who had come by sea in balsas (rafts) from parts unknown. These Caras, or Carans, established the dynasty of the Scyris at Quito, and extended their conquests to the north and south, until checked by the warlike nation of the Puruhas, who inhabited the present district of Riobamba. ... In the reign of Hualcopo Duchicela, the 13th Scyri, the Peruvian Incas commenced to extend their conquests to the north. ... About the middle of the 15th century the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, father of Huaynacapac, invaded the dominions of the Scyris, and after many bloody battles and sieges, conquered the kingdom of Puruha and returned in triumph to Cuzco. Hualcopo survived his loss but a few years. He is said to have died of grief, and was succeeded by his son Cacha, the 15th and last of the Scyris. Cacha Duchicela at once set out to recover his paternal dominions. Although of feeble health, he seems to have been a man of great energy and intrepidity. He fell upon the garrison which the Inca had left at Mocha, put it to the sword, and reoccupied the kingdom of Puruha, where he was received with open arms. He even carried his banners further south, until checked by the Cañares, the inhabitants of what is now the district of Cuenca, who had voluntarily submitted to the Inca, and now detained the Scyri until Huaynacapac, the greatest of the Inca dynasty, came to their rescue." On the plain of Tiocajas, and again on the plain of Hatuntaqui, great battles were fought, in both of which the Scyri was beaten, and in the last of which he fell. "On the very field of battle the faithful Caranquis proclaimed Pacha, the daughter of the fallen king, as their Scyri. Huaynacapac now regulated his conduct by policy. He ordered the dead king to be buried with all the honors due to royalty, and made offers of marriage to young Pacha, by whom he was not refused. ... The issue of the marriage was Atahuallpa, the last of the native rulers of Peru. ... {671} As prudent and highly politic as the conduct of Huaynacapac is generally reputed to have been, so imprudent and unpolitic was the division of the empire which he made on his death bed, bequeathing his paternal dominions to his first-born and undoubtedly legitimate son, Huascar, and to Atahuallpa the kingdom of Quito. He might have foreseen the evil consequences of such a partition. His death took place about the year 1525. For five or seven years the brothers lived in peace." Then quarrels arose, leading to civil war, resulting in the defeat and death of Huascar. Atahuallpa had just become master of the weakened and shaken empire of the Incas, when the invading Spaniards, under Pizarro, fell on the doomed land and made its riches their own. The conquest of the Spaniards did not include the kingdom of Quito at first, but was extended to the latter in 1533 by Sebastian de Benalcazar, whom Pizarro had put in command of the Port of San Miguel. Excited by stories of the riches of Quito, and invited by ambassadors from the Canares, the old enemies of the Quito tribes, Benalcazar, "without orders or permission from Pizarro ... left San Miguel, at the head of about 150 men. His second in command was the monster Juan de Ampudia." The fate of Quito was again decided on the plain of Tiocajas, where Rumiñagui, a chief who had seized the vacant throne, made a desperate but vain resistance. He gained time, however, to remove whatever treasures there may have been at Quito beyond the reach of its rapacious conquerors, and "where he hid them is a secret to the present day. ... Traditions of the great treasures hidden in the mountains by Rumiñagui are eagerly repeated and believed at Quito. ... Having removed the gold and killed the Virgins of the Sun, and thus placed two objects so eagerly coveted by the invaders beyond their reach, Rumiñagui set fire to the town, and evacuated it with an his troops and followers. It would be difficult to describe the rage, mortification and despair of the Spaniards, on finding smoking ruins instead of the treasures which they had expected. ... Thousands of innocent Indians were sacrificed to their disappointed cupidity. ... Every nook and corner of the province was searched; but only in the sepulchres some little gold was found. ... Of the ancient buildings of Quito no stone was left upon the other, and deep excavations were made under them to search for hidden treasures. Hence there is no vestige left at Quito of its former civilization; not a ruin, not a wall, not a stone to which the traditions of the past might cling. ... On the 28th of August, 1534, the Spanish village of Quito [San Francisco de Quito] was founded."

_F. Hassaurek, Fours Years among Spanish Americans, chapter 16._

ALSO IN: _W. H. Prescott, History of Conquest of Peru,