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 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. |
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fl 880s BC |
Arbaces |
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First in Ctesias'
unreliable list of nine kings, Arbaces is said to destroy Ninevah at this
time. |
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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. |
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Varbaaxshatta |
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Modakku |
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Sosarmas |
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Artaxshatra |
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fl c. 750 BC |
Xshatrita I |
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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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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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. |
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409 BC |
A
Median rebellion against the Persian
king Darius II is short-lived. |
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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. |
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