Medes

Native name	Mādai
Conventional long name	Median Empire or Median Confederation
Common name	Media
Continent	Asia
Region	Ancient Near East
Country	Iran
Era	Golden Age
Government type	Monarchy
Year start	728 BC
Year end	549 BC
Event start	Cyaxares united Median tribes
Event end	Cyrus the Great
P1	Neo-Assyrian Empire
Flag p1	Map of Assyria.png
S1	Achaemenid Empire
Flag s1	Standard of Cyrus the Great (Achaemenid Empire).svg
Image map caption	A map of Median Empire; based on Herodotean
Capital	Ecbatana
Common languages	Old Iranian; Median language
Religion	Zoroastrianism
Title leader	King
Leader1	Cyaxares (first)
Year leader1	625-585 BC
Leader2	Astyages (last)
Year leader2	589-549 BC

The Medes (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people. B) "Archaeological evidence for the religion of the Iranian-speaking Medes of the .." . C) ".. succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Iranian-speaking Median tribes" ( from Encyclopedia Britannica and the mound that was the city of Rhages (also called Rey), on the outskirts of Shahr Rey, near Tehran.

Name

The original source for different words used to call the Median people, their language and homeland is a directly transmitted Old Iranian geographical name which is attested as the Old Persian "Māda-" (sing. masc.). The linguist W. Skalmowski proposes a relation with the proto-indoeuropean word "med(h)-" meaning "central, suited in the middle" by referring to Old Indic "madhya-" and Old Iranic Avestan "maidiia-" both carrying the same meaning.

They also appear in many ancient texts: According to Histories of Herodotus "The Medes were called anciently by all people Aryans; but when Medea, the Colchian, came to them from Athens, they changed their name. Such is the account which they themselves give". He had also listed the names of six Median tribes: "Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi."

The geographical name "Media" survives in the Modern Iranian geographical name "Māhīdašt" (lit. “the Median plain,” with "Māh < Māda-") in Kermanshah province.

Historical geography of Media

The original population area of median people was western Iran and named after them as "Media". At the end of the 2nd millennium BCE the median tribes, as one of Iranian tribes to do so, arrived in the region which they later called Media. These tribes expanded their control over larger areas subsequently and over a period of several hundred years the boundaries of Media moved.

Ancient textual sources

The earlier description of the territory of Media by the Assyrians dates from the end of 9th century until the beginning of the 7th century BCE. The southern border of Media, in that period, is named as Elamite region of Simaški in presend day Lorestan, from west and northwest it was bounded by Zagros mountains and from east by Dašt-e Kavir. In summary the region of Media known to Assyrian and recorded by them "extended along the Great Khorasan Road from just east of Harhar to Alwand, and probably beyond. It was limited on the north by Mannea, on the south by Ellipi." The location of Harhar is suggested to be "the central or eastern" Mahidasht in Kermanshah province.

On the east and southeast of Media, as described by Assyrians, another land with the name of "Patušarra" appears. This land was located near a mountain range with what Assyrian mention as "Bikni" and describe as "Lapis Lazuli Mountain". There are various opinion on the location of this mountain. Damavand of Tehran and Alvand of Hamadan are two proposed identification of that location. This location is the most remote eastern area that the Assyrians knew or reached during their expansion until the beginning of 7th century BCE.

In the sources from Achaemenid Iran and specifically from the inscription of Darius I (2.76, 77-78) the capital of Media is named as "Hamgmatāna-" in Old Persian (and as Elamite "Agmadana-", Babylonian "Agamtanu-", etc.). The classical authors transmitted this as Ecbatana. This site is the modern Hamadan province.

Archaeological evidence

The Median archaeological sources are rare. The discoveries of Median sites happened only after 1960s. For sometime after 1960 the search for Median archeological sources has been for most parts focused in an area known as the “Median triangle,” defined roughly as the region bounded by Hamadān, Malāyer (in Hamdan province) and Kangāvar (in Kermanshah province).

Tepe Nush-i Jan (a primarily religious site of Median period),

:The site is located 14 km west of Malāyer in Hamadan province. The remains of four main buildings in the site have "the central temple, the western temple, the fort, and the columned hall" which according to Stronach were likely to have been built in the order named and predate the latter occupation of the first half of the 6th century BCE.

Godin Tepe (its period II: a fortified palace of a Median king or tribal chief),

:The site is located 13 km east of Kangāvar city on the left bank of the river Gamas Āb". The excavations, started in 1965, were led by T. C. Young, Jr. which, according to D. Stronach, evidently shows an important Bronze Age construction that was reoccupied sometime before the beginning of the Iron III period. The excavations of Young indicate the remains of a part of a single residence of a local ruler which later became quite substantial. These sources have both similarities (in cultural characteristics) and differences (due to functional differences and diversity among the Median tribes). For other historical documentation, the archaeological evidence, though rare, together with cuneiform records by Assyrian make it possible, regardless of Herodotus accounts, to establish some of the early history of Medians.

Rise to power

Pre-dynastic history

Iranian tribes were present in western and northwestern Iran at least from 12-11th century BCE. The significance of Iranian elements in these regions were established from beginning of the second half of the 8th century BCE. By this time the Iranian tribes were the majority in what later become the territory of Median kingdom and also the west of Media proper.

In western and northwestern Iran and in areas west to these and prior to the Median rule there were previously political activities of powerful societies of Elam, Manna, Assyria and Urartu/Ararat (Armenia).

Median dynasty

The list of Median rulers and their dates compiled according to A: Herodotus who calls them "kings" and associates them to the same family and B: Babylonian Chronicle which in "Gadd's Chronicle on the Fall of Nineveh" gives its own list, ist: Deioces (reign 700-647 BCE), Phraortes (reign 647-625 BCE), Scythian (reign 624-597 BCE), Cyaxares (reign 624-585 BCE) and Astyages (reign 585-549 BCE): a total of 150 years. Not all of these dates and personalities given by Herodotus match the other near eastern sources Judging from the contemporary sources of the region and disregarding the account of Herodotus puts the formation of a unified Median state during reign of Cyaxares or later.

Median culture and society

In Greek references to "Median" people there is no clear distinction between the "Persians" and the "Medians"; in fact for a Greek to become "too closely associated with Iranian culture" was "to become medianized, not persianized".

Language

Median people spoke Median language that was an Old Iranian language. Strabo(63/64 BC – ca. AD 24) in his "Geography", mentions the affinity of Mede with other Iranian languages: "The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations".

No original text written in Median language and during the rule of Median kingdom has been found. It is suggested that similar to later Iranian practice of keeping archive of written documents in Achaemenid Iran, there was also a maintenance of archives by Median government in their capital Ecbatana. There are examples of "Median literature" found in later records. One is according to Herdotus that the Median king Deioces, appearing as a judge, made judgement on causes submitted in writing. There is also a report by Dinon on existence of "Median court poets". Median literature is a part of the "Old Iranian literature" (including also Saka, Old Persian, Avestan) as this Iranian affiliation of them is explicit also in ancient texts, such as Herodotus's account

Words of Median origin appear in various other Iranian dialects, including Old Persian. A feature of Old Persian inscriptions is the large number of words and names from other languages and the Median language takes in this regard a special place for historical reasons. Words of Median origin include: *čiθra-: "origin". The word appears in *čiθrabṛzana- (med.) "exalting his linage", *čiθramiθra- (med.) "having mithraic origin", *čiθraspāta- (med.) "having a brilliant army", etc. Farnah: Divine glory; ()

Paridaiza: Paradise, (as in Pardis پردیس)

Spaka- : The word is Median and means "dog". Herodotus identifies "Spaka-" (Gk. "σπάχα" - female dog) as Median rather than Persian. The word is still used in modern Iranian languages including Talyshi. vazṛka-: "great" (as Modern Persian bozorg) (as in Avestan). The component appears in such words as vispafryā (Med. fem.) "dear to all", vispatarva- (med.) "vanquishing all", vispavada- (med. -op.) "leader of all", etc. Xshayathiya (royal, royalty): This Median word (∗xšaθra-pā-) is an example of words whose Greek form (known as romanized "satrap" from Gk. "satrápēs - σατράπης") mirrors, as opposed to the tradition|group="N"}}, a Median rather than an Old Persian form of an Old Iranian word. This conjecture is, however, challenged by other scholars who consider central Iranian dialects, mainly those of Kashan area and Tati as the only direct offshoots of Median language.

Religion

From the names in the Assyrian inscriptions, it appears they had already adopted the religion of Zoroaster.

The revival of Zoroastrianism, enforced everywhere by the Sassanids, completed this development. Atropatene, already center of the fire cult during Parthian times (see Takht-i-Suleiman) now became the site of one of the legendary Great Fires. Under the patronage of Kartir, the 'priest of priests' of the early Sassanid kings, Arsacia/Rhagae advanced to become one of the two (the other being Ishtakhr, ancestral seat of the Sassanid priest-kings) centers of the Zoroastrian priesthood.

Media in later periods

Achaemenid Persia

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In 553 BC, Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, rebelled against his grandfather, the Mede King, Astyages son of Cyaxares; he finally won a decisive victory in 550 BC resulting in Astyages' capture by his own dissatisfied nobles, who promptly turned him over to the triumphant Cyrus.

After Cyrus's victory against Astyages, the Medes were subjected to their close kin, the Persians. In the new empire they retained a prominent position; in honor and war, they stood next to the Persians; their court ceremony was adopted by the new sovereigns, who in the summer months resided in Ecbatana; and many noble Medes were employed as officials, satraps and generals. Interestingly, at the beginning the Greek historians referred to the Achaemenid Empire as a Median empire.

After the assassination of the usurper Smerdis, a Mede Fravartish (Phraortes), claiming to be a scion of Cyaxares, tried to restore the Mede kingdom, but was defeated by the Persian generals and executed in Ecbatana (Darius I the Great in the Behistun inscr.). Another rebellion, in 409 BC, against Darius II (Xenophon, Hellen. ~. 2, 19) was of short duration. But the Iranian tribes to the north, especially the Cadusii, were always troublesome; many abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are mentioned.

Under Persian rule, the country was divided into two satrapies: the south, with Ecbatana and Rhagae (Rey near modern Tehran), Media proper, or Greater Media, as it is often called, formed in Darius I the Great's organization the eleventh satrapy (Herodotus iii. 92), together with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians; the north, the district of Matiane (see above), together with the mountainous districts of the Zagros and Assyria proper (east of the Tigris) was united with the Alarodians and Saspirians in eastern Armenia, and formed the eighteenth satrapy (Herod. iii. 94; cf. v. 49, 52, VII. 72).

When the Persian empire decayed and the Cadusii and other mountainous tribes made themselves independent, eastern Armenia became a special satrapy, while Assyria seems to have been united with Media; therefore Xenophon in the Anabasis always designates Assyria by the name of "Media".

Seleucid rule

Following Alexander's invasion of the satrapy of Media in the summer of 330 BC, he appointed as satrap a former general of Darius III the Great named Atropates (Atrupat) in 328 BC, according to Arrian. In the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian Peithon; but the north, far off and of little importance to the generals squabbling over Alexander's inheritance, was left to Atropates.

While southern Media, with Ecbatana, passed to the rule of Antigonus, and afterwards (about 310 BC) to Seleucus I, Atropates maintained himself in his own satrapy and succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the partition of the country, that Persia had introduced, became lasting; the north was named Atropatene (in Pliny, Atrapatene; in Ptolemy, Tropatene), after the founder of the dynasty, a name still said to be preserved in the modern form 'Azerbaijan'.

The capital of Atropatene was Gazaca in the central plain, and the castle Phraaspa, discovered on the Araz river by archaeologists in April 2005.

Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was least of all other countries influenced by Hellenism; there exists not even a single coin of its rulers. Southern Media remained a province of the Seleucid Empire for a century and a half, and Hellenism was introduced everywhere. Media was surrounded everywhere by Greek towns, in pursuance of Alexander's plan to protect it from neighboring barbarians, according to Polybius (x. 27). Only Ecbatana retained its old character. But Rhagae became the Greek town Europus; and with it Strabo (xi. 524) names Laodicea, Apamea Heraclea or Achais. Most of them were founded by Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I.

Arsacid rule

In 221 BC, the satrap Molon tried to make himself independent (there exist bronze coins with his name and the royal title), together with his brother Alexander, satrap of Persis, but they were defeated and killed by Antiochus the Great. In the same way, the Mede satrap Timarchus took the diadem and conquered Babylonia; on his coins he calls himself the great king Timarchus; but again the legitimate king, Demetrius I, succeeded in subduing the rebellion, and Timarchus was slain. But with Demetrius I, the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire began, brought about chiefly by the intrigues of the Romans, and shortly afterwards, in about 150, the Parthian king Mithradates I conquered Media (Justin xli. 6).

From this time Media remained subject to the Arsacids or Parthians, who changed the name of Rhagae, or Europus, into Arsacia (Strabo xi. 524), and divided the country into five small provinces (Isidorus Charac.). From the Parthians, it passed in 226 to the Sassanids, together with Atropatene.

See also

Achaemenid Empire

Madai

Mair Rajputs

Kurukshetra

Persian Empire

Greater Persia

List of rulers of Pre-Achaemenid kingdoms of Iran

List of kings of Persia

Notes

References

Literature cited

Further reading

;Encyclopaedic Articles

"Mede." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 January 2008.

; Book chapters

External links

Article Median Empire from Iran Chamber Society.

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