Media (region)
Media 𐎶𐎠𐎭 | |
---|---|
Historical region of Iran | |
The regional origin of the Medes | |
Capital | Ecbatana |
History | |
• Establishment of the Medes | c. 678 BC |
• Fall of the Median dynasty | c. 549 BC |
Today part of | Iran |
Media (
History
Under the Medes
In 678 BC, Deioces united the Median tribes of Media and made the first Iranian Empire. His grandson Cyaxares managed to unite all Iranian tribes of Ancient Iran and made his empire a major power. When Cyaxares died he was succeeded by his son, Astyages, who was the last king of the Median Empire.
Under the Achaemenids
In 553 BC, Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, rebelled against his grandfather, the Median 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.[3]
After Cyrus's victory against Astyages, the Medes were subjected to their close kin, the Persians.[4] 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. 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 (
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,[8] together with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians; the north, the district of Matiane, 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.[9]
Caucasian Albania (roughly comprising northeast of modern-day Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan) was rapidly incorporated by the Achaemenid Persians and were under the command of the satrapy of Media[10][11] in the later period.
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".[7]
Under the Seleucids
Following
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
Under the Arsacids
In 221 BC, the satrap
From this time Media remained subject to the
Geography
An early description of Media from the end of the 9th century BC to the beginning of the 7th century BC comes from the Assyrians. The southern border of Media, in that period, is named as the
Its borders were limited in the north by the non-Iranian states of Gizilbunda and
In Achaemenid sources, specifically from the
Notes
- ISBN 978-90-04-16054-5) ...
References
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online Media (ancient region, Iran)
- Darius Iin 513-12 BCE. The Persian domination of the cis-Caucasian area (the northern side of the range) was brief, and archeological findings indicate that the Great Caucasus formed the northern border of the empire during most, if not all, of the Achaemenid period after Darius"
- ^ Briant, Pierre (2006). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. p. 31.
- ^ Herodotus, The Histories, p. 93.
- ^ Xenophon, Hellen. 2, 19
- ^ Rudiger Schmitt, "Cadusii" in Encyclopedia Iranica[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Meyer, Eduard (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 21.
- ^ Herodotus iii. 92
- ^ Herod. iii. 94; cf. v. 49, 52, VII. 72
- ^ Chaumont, M. L. Albania Archived 2007-03-10 at the Wayback Machine. Encyclopædia Iranica.
- Darius Iin 513-12 BCE. The Persian domination of the cis-Caucasian area (the northern side of the range) was brief, and archeological findings indicate that the Great Caucasus formed the northern border of the empire during most, if not all, of the Achaemenid period after Darius"
- ^ Polybius, x. 27
- ^ Strabo, xi. 524
- ^ Justin xli. 6
- ^ Strabo xi. 524
- ^ Isidorus Charac.
- ^ a b (Levine 1974, p. 119)
- ^ (Levine 1974, p. 117)
- ^ a b "MEDIA". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
- ^ (Levine 1974, pp. 118–119)
- ^ (Levine 1974, p. 118)
- ISBN 978-964-94491-4-2., page 93
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2.
- Levine, Louis D. (1974-01-01), "Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros-II", Iran, 12: 99–124, JSTOR 4300506
Further reading
- Hyland, John (2013). "Alexander's Satraps of Media". Journal of Ancient History. 1 (2): 119–144. .
External links
- Media related to Medes at Wikimedia Commons