It may be safer to identify Xenophon’s Mépsila with the site of Iski Mosul, or “Old Mosul”, about 30 km (19 mi) north of modern Mosul, where six centuries after Xenophon’s report, the Sasanian Empire’s center of Budh-Ardhashir was built. Be that as it may, the name Mepsila is doubtless the root for the modern name.