Median Empire: A Visual History

The Medes were an Iranian people of the Zagros mountains who, under Cyaxares, allied with Babylon to destroy the Assyrian Empire in 612-609 BC and then dominated the Iranian plateau and eastern Anatolia from Ecbatana. Their war with Lydia ended in 585 BC after a solar eclipse. Around 550 BC the Persian king Cyrus, a Median vassal, rebelled, defeated Astyages and absorbed the Median kingdom into what became the Achaemenid Empire. How centralised the Median 'empire' actually was is disputed by historians.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Median Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Median territory (traditional view)

Some historians think the Medes never controlled much beyond western Iran; the Herodotean picture is shown here.

Timeline of the Median Empire

1. 678 BC
   Traditional founding by Deioces
2. 625 BC
   Cyaxares
3. 614 BC
   Ashur sacked
4. 612 BC
   Nineveh destroyedWith Babylon.
5. 585 BC
   Battle of the EclipsePeace with Lydia.
6. 585 BC
   Astyages succeeds
7. 550 BC
   Cyrus defeats AstyagesThe Median kingdom absorbed.

Origins

Assyrian records mention Median chiefs from the ninth century BC. Herodotus tells of Deioces uniting the tribes and building Ecbatana with its seven coloured walls; modern scholars doubt the details. Assyrian campaigns and Scythian raids kept the Medes divided until the late seventh century.

Cyaxares and the fall of Assyria

Cyaxares reorganised the army into spearmen, archers and cavalry, threw off Scythian domination and in 614 BC sacked Ashur. In alliance with Nabopolassar of Babylon he took Nineveh in 612 and helped destroy the last Assyrian forces at Harran in 609. He then pushed into Anatolia against Lydia; the battle of the Halys in 585 BC was interrupted by an eclipse and the powers made peace with the Halys as border.

Astyages and Cyrus

Astyages ruled for 35 years. His vassal Cyrus of Anshan, said by legend to be his grandson, rebelled around 553; the Median army defected at the decisive battle and Astyages was captured. Cyrus took Ecbatana and its treasury and made the Medes senior partners in his empire, so Greek writers spoke of 'the Medes and Persians' as one.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 BC to 609 BC)
• Neo-Babylonian Empire (626 BC to 539 BC)
• Lydia (680 BC to 546 BC)
• Achaemenid Empire (550 BC to 330 BC)
• Scythia (800 BC to 300 BC)
• Urartu (860 BC to 590 BC)
• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)

Wars of the same era and region

• Greco-Persian Wars (499 BC to 449 BC)

8 surprising things about the Median Empire

1. The Battle of the Eclipse of 28 May 585 BC is the earliest event in history datable to the exact day, thanks to the eclipse Thales supposedly predicted.
2. Herodotus says Astyages dreamed his daughter urinated so much she flooded Asia, a portent of Cyrus.
3. Ecbatana's seven concentric walls were said to be painted white, black, purple, blue, orange, silver and gold.
4. The Medes gave the Greeks their word for Persians in general: to 'medise' meant to side with the Persian king.
5. The Magi, the Zoroastrian priestly caste, were said by Herodotus to be a Median tribe.
6. The Medes' Scythian overlords were reportedly killed at a banquet where Cyaxares got them drunk.
7. No Median inscription or archive has ever been found; almost everything known comes from Assyrian, Babylonian and Greek sources.
8. The Median language survives only in loanwords in Old Persian, such as the word for 'satrap'.

Sources

• Media (ancient region, Iran) Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Medes Wikipedia
• Median Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Herodotus, Histories, Book 1 Perseus Digital Library

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