The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited
an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC,
they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region
of Mesopotamia located in the region of Hamadan . Their emergence in Iran is believed to have
occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some
other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains
unknown.
Although they are generally recognized as having an important place in the history of
the ancient Near East, the Medes have left no written source to reconstruct their history,
which is known only from foreign sources such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Armenians and
Greeks, as well as a few Iranian archaeological sites, which are believed to have been occupied
by Medes. The accounts relating to the Medes reported by Herodotus have left the image
of a powerful people, who would have formed an empire at the beginning of the 7th century
BC that lasted until the 550s BC, played a determining role in the fall of the Assyrian
Empire and competed with the powerful kingdoms of Lydia and Babylonia. However, a recent
reassessment of contemporary sources from the Mede period has altered scholars' perceptions
of the Median state. The state remains difficult to perceive in the documentation, which leaves
many doubts about it, some specialists even suggesting that there never was a powerful
Median kingdom. In any case, it appears that after the fall of the last Median king against
Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire, Media became an important province and prized by
the empires which successively dominated it .
History Prehistory
At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Iranian tribes emerged in the region of northwest
Iran. These tribes expanded their control over larger areas. Subsequently, the boundaries
of Media changed over a period of several hundred years. Iranian tribes were present
in western and northwestern Iran from at least the 12th or 11th centuries BC. But the significance
of Iranian elements in these regions were established from the beginning of the second
half of the 8th century BC. By this time the Iranian tribes were the majority in what later
become the territory of the Median Kingdom and also the west of Media proper. A study
of textual sources from the region shows that in the Neo-Assyrian period, the regions of
Media, and further to the west and the northwest, had a population with Iranian speaking people
as the majority.
This period of migration coincided with a power vacuum in the Near East with the Middle
Assyrian Empire , which had dominated northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus,
going into a comparative decline. This allowed new peoples to pass through and settle. In
addition Elam, the dominant power in Iran, was suffering a period of severe weakness,
as was Babylonia to the west.
In western and northwestern Iran and in areas further west prior to Median rule, there is
evidence of the earlier political activity of the powerful societies of Elam, Mannaea,
Assyria and Urartu . There are various and up-dated opinions on the positions and activities
of Iranian tribes in these societies and prior to the "major Iranian state formations" in
the late 7th century BC. One opinion is that the ruling class were "Iranian migrants" but
the society was "autonomous" while another opinion holds that both the ruling class and
basic elements of the population were Iranian. Rise and fall
From the 10th to the late 7th centuries BC, the western parts of Media fell under the
domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, which stretched
from Cyprus in the west, to parts of western Iran in the east, and Egypt and the north
of the Arabian Peninsula. Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib,
Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed Vassal Treaties upon the Median rulers,
and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythians and Cimmerians.
During the reign of Sinsharishkun , the Assyrian empire, which had been in a state of constant
civil war since 626 BC, began to unravel. Subject peoples, such as the Medes, Babylonians,
Chaldeans, Egyptians, Scythians, Cimmerians, Lydians and Arameans quietly ceased to pay
tribute to Assyria.
Neo-Assyrian dominance over the Medians came to an end during the reign of Median King
Cyaxares, who, in alliance with King Nabopolassar of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, attacked and
destroyed the strife-riven Neo-Assyrian empire between 616 and 609 BC. The newfound alliance
helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BC, which resulted in the eventual collapse
of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by 609 BC. The Medes were subsequently able to establish
their Median Kingdom beyond their original homeland and had eventually a territory stretching
roughly from northeastern Iran to the Kızılırmak River in Anatolia. After the fall of Assyria
between 616 BC and 609 BC, a unified Median state was formed, which together with Babylonia,
Lydia, and ancient Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East.
Cyaxares was succeeded by his son King Astyages. In 553 BC, his maternal grandson Cyrus the
Great, the King of Anshan/Persia, a Median vassal, revolted against Astyages. In 550
BC, Cyrus finally won a decisive victory 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 honour 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.
Median dynasty The list of Median rulers and their period
of reign is compiled according to two sources. Firstly, Herodotus who calls them "kings"
and associates them with the same family. Secondly, the Babylonian Chronicle which in
"Gadd's Chronicle on the Fall of Nineveh" gives its own list. A combined list stretching
over 150 years is thus:
Deioces Phraortes
Scythian rule Cyaxares
Astyages However, not all of these dates and personalities
given by Herodotus match the other near eastern sources.
In Herodotus , Deioces is introduced as the founder of a centralised Median state. He
had been known to the Median people as "a just and incorruptible man" and when asked
by the Median people to solve their possible disputes he agreed and put forward the condition
that they make him "king" and build a great city at Ecbatana as the capital of the Median
state. Judging from the contemporary sources of the region and disregarding the account
of Herodotus puts the formation of a unified Median state during the reign of Cyaxares
or later.