Middle East Kingdoms

Media (Amadai)
c.728 - 530 BC

The Medians were a collection of Indo-European tribes who entered the area of the northern Zagros Mountains from the start of the first millennium BC, during a period of instability and migration throughout the Middle East. Initially they, along with other new arrivals such as the Mannaeans and the Persians, formed a state that was a very loose coalition of tribes, each with a leader or king of its own. Consolidation came later, but all of these new arrivals contributed towards a more uncertain political sphere to the east of Babylonia and Assyria (who knew them as the Amadai).

The Medes co-operated with the Babylonians to destroy Assyria, and shared the captured territory between themselves, with Media assuming power in eastern Assyria, and north and east of the Tigris from 609 BC. By now the kingdom's capital was at Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). None of the new tribal arrivals in the Zagros had any native written tradition, so their history must be pieced together from outside sources. The popular Greek forms of names are shown in green, and many of the details regarding the later Median empire are Greek (from Herodotus). In the eyes of some scholars they are not to be trusted, and Herodotus' theory of a great Median empire is total fiction designed to complete a gap in his view of a sequence of eastern empires.

fl 880s BC

Arbaces

First in Ctesias' unreliable list of nine kings, Arbaces is said to destroy Ninevah at this time.

836 BC

The Medes are mentioned for the first time in historical records when Shalmaneser III of Assyria receives tribute from the 'Amadai' after fighting wars against the tribes of the Zagros Mountains. Living in the central Zagros along the Khorasan road, the Medes are usually mentioned in conjunction with the Scythians, another steppe tribe who appear to be the dominant force in the region.

Varbaaxshatta

Modakku

Sosarmas

Artaxshatra

fl c. 750 BC

Xshatrita I

In the late eighth century, for the first time, fortified cities begin to appear in strategic locations in the Zagros, built by Assyria which now reduces the region to three provinces in an attempt to control the trade route along the Khorasan road. Assyria's political control is incomplete, and various small groups of Medes remain independent. Some twenty-two Median chiefs pay tribute to Sargon II.

c.728 - 675 BC

Dayaukku / Daiukku / Deioces

Governor of Mannae.

Herodotus names Deioces as the king who eventually unites the Median tribes, forming a single kingship centred on Ecbatana. The six Median tribe are named as follows: the Arizanti, the Budii, the Busae, the Magi, the Paretaceni, and the Struchates. Median and Persian dress is the same, with the latter being the lesser of the two peoples.

675 - 653 BC

Xshatrita II / Phraortes / Kashtaritu

653 BC

A Scythian invasion of the steppes sees one of their number ruling the Medes and associated Iranian tribes.

653 - 625 BC

Madyas the Scythian

625 - 585 BC

Huwaxshatra / Cyaxares

Helped overthrow the Assyrian empire.

fl 614 BC

Umakishtar

Helped overthrow the Assyrian empire. Same as above?

c.620 BC

The Medians (possibly) take control of Achaemenid Persia from the weakening Assyrians who themselves had only recently taken control of the region from Elam. According to Herodotus, Media governs all of the Iranian steppe tribes.

616 BC

Taking advantage of the power vacuum which has existed in the region since the fall of Elam, and Assyria itself being invaded by the Babylonians, Mannae is conquered by the Medes and is integrated into the Median kingdom.

615 - 609 BC

The Medes conclude an alliance with Babylonia, and together with groups such as the Scythians they overthrow and destroy Assyria. Now in command of large parts of the Iranian Plateau (according to Herodotus), Cyaxares marries his daughter to the Babylonian successor, Nebuchadnezzar II.

590/585 BC

Again, according to Herodotus, Cyaxares captures the territory which had formed the kingdom of Urartu and, at the end of a fifteen year war, defeats the army of Lydia in the Battle of the Eclipse.

585 - 550 BC

Ishtumegu / Astyages

553 - 550 BC

Herodotus tells the story of how the Medians lose control of Achaemenid Persia when the grandson of Astyages, Cyrus, rebels. In 550 BC Cyrus wins a decisive victory and Astyages is captured by his own nobles and handed over. Harpagus, a Median of the royal house and the main cause of Astyages' defeat, conquers Anatolia for the Persians in 547-546 BC and his descendants reign in Lycia thereafter.

521 BC

Upon the execution of the Persian usurper, Smerdis, Farvartish tries to restore the Median kingdom. He is defeated by Persian generals and executed.

521 BC

Farvartish / Phraortes

Descended from Cyaxares. Pretender to Persian/Median throne.

409 BC

A Median rebellion against the Persian king Darius II is short-lived.

332 - 323 BC

The region is conquered by Alexander the Great's Greek empire and is divided into separate satrapies.

323 - 320 BC

Atropates

Greek satrap of northern Media.

323 - 315 BC

Peithon

Greek satrap of Media.

320 - 141 BC

Alexander's general, Seleucus, governs Persia during the period of the Diadochi Wars, and it is possible that he also has some authority over Peithon. During the Third War of the Diadochi, the Empire of Antigonus captures areas of Seleucus' rule (between 315-312 BC), but once Persia is recovered by Seleucus, it is retained by his descendants within the Seleucid empire until 141 BC.

141 BC - AD 4

The Parthians take Media from the Seleucids. The Parthian empire eventually breaks up, leaving a patchwork of kingdoms which remain in a loose alliance with one another for a further 200 years.

c.70

Pacorus

Brother of Vologeses of Persia and Tiridates II of Armenia.

c.70

An attack by the warlike Alani tribe to the north of the Black Sea defeats a Median force.