Medians

Median Empire
Mādai
c. 678 BC–549 BC
A map of the Median Empire; based on Herodotus
Capital		Ecbatana
Languages		Median
Religion		Old Iranian religion (related to Mithraism, early Zoroastrianism)
Government		Monarchy
King
•	678–665 BC	Deioces or Kashtariti
•	665–633 BC	Phraortes
•	625–585 BC	Cyaxares
•	589–549 BC	Astyages
Historical era		Iron Age
•	Established	c. 678 BC
•	Conquered by Cyrus the Great	549 BC
Area
•	585 BC	2,800,000 km² (1,081,086 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Neo-Assyrian Empire Urartu Achaemenid Empire

The Medes (/miːdz/, Old Persian Māda-, Ancient Greek: Μῆδοι, Hebrew: מָדַי‎) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media (northwestern Iran) and who spoke the Median language. They mainly inhabited the mountainous area of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia and located in the Kermanshah-Hamadan (Ecbatana) region Their emergence in Iran is thought to have occurred between 1000 BC to around 900 BC.

This period of migration coincided with a power vacuum in the Near East with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), which had dominated northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus, going into a comparative decline. This allowed new peoples to pass through and settle. In addition Elam, the dominant power in Iran, was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west.

From the 10th to the late 7th centuries BC, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, but which stretched from Cyprus to Iran, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed Vassal Treaties upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythians and Cimmerians.