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The Medes raised sheep, goat, and cattle for meat, milk, and wool, but it was the Median horses that were considered their most treasured resource. The Medes were known for their horsemanship, and when the Assyrians demanded tribute from them it was almost always in the form of horses trained for riding. [20]
Medes (region) Media (Old Persian: 𐎶𐎠𐎭, romanized: Māda, Middle Persian: Mād) is a region of north-western Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Medes. [N 1] During the Achaemenid period, it comprised present-day Iranian Azerbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan and western Tabaristan.
The Medo-Persian conflict was a military campaign led by the Median king Astyages against Persis in the mid 6th-century BCE. Classical sources claim that Persis had been a vassal of the Median kingdom that revolted against Median rule, but this is not confirmed by contemporary evidence.
Besides the Greeks, Jews, Egyptians, and other peoples of the ancient world also called the Persians "Medes" and considered Persian rule a continuation of that of the Medes. [1] A handwritten Bible in Latin, on display at Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. The biblical texts consider Media as a significant power.
The Old Persian and Avestan evidence is confirmed by the Greek sources. [19] Herodotus, in his Histories, remarks about the Iranian Medes that "Medes were called anciently by all people Arians" (7.62). [19] [20] In Armenian sources, the Parthians, Medes and Persians are collectively referred to as Iranians. [29]
The Medes were an Iranian people who had become a major political power in the Near East by 612 BCE, when they joined the Babylonians in overthrowing Assyria. [6] Their kingdom came to an end in 550 BCE (or 553 BC according to some sources), when it was conquered by Cyrus the Great, the Persian king of Anshan in south-western Iran.
In the sixth year of Nabonidus (550/549) Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid Persian king of Anshan in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, king of the Manda or Medes, at Ecbatana. Astyages' army betrayed him, and Cyrus established his rule at Ecbatana, putting an end to the Median Empire and elevating the Persians among the Iranic peoples.
The inhabitants, who were known as Medes, and their neighbors, the Persians, spoke Median languages that were closely related to Aryan (Old Persian). Historians know very little about the Iranian culture under the Median dynasty , except that Zoroastrianism , as well as a polytheistic religion, was practiced, and a priestly caste called the ...