Stagira (ancient city) Stagira (ancient city) Stagira (), Stagirus (), or Stageira ( or ) was an ancient Greek city, located in central Macedonia, near the eastern coast of the peninsula of Chalkidice, and is chiefly known for being the birthplace of Aristotle, who was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The city lies approximately north northeast of the present-day village of Stagira, close to the town of Olympiada. Stagira was founded in 655 BC by Ionian settlers from Andros. Xerxes I of Persia occupied it in 480 BC. The city later joined the
Ecbatana and Pasargadae and that one of the last acts of his life was to visit the city. The citadel of Ecbatana is also mentioned in the Bible in Ezra 6:2, in the time of Darius I, as part of the national archives. Although historians and archaeologists now believe that "the identification of Ecbatana with Hamadān is secure," earlier visitors to the site were unable to find significant remains of the Median and Achaemenid periods, which led them to suggest other sites as the location of Ecbatana. Assyrian sources never mention Hagmatana/Ecbatana. Some scholars believed the problem can be resolved by