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Medes
The Medes (Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia located in the region of Hamadan (Ecbatana). Their consolidation in Iran is believed to have occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains unknown. Although they are generally recognized as having an important place in the history of the ancient Near East, the Medes have left no written source to reconstruct their history, which is known only from foreign sources such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Armenians and Greeks, as well as a few Iranian archaeological sites, which are believed to have been occupi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyaxares
Cyaxares ( Median: ; Old Persian: ; Akkadian: ; Old Phrygian: ; grc, Κυαξαρης, Kuaxarēs; Latin: ; reigned 625–585 BCE) was the third king of the Medes. Cyaxares collaborated with the Babylonians to destroy the Assyrian Empire, and united most of the Iranian tribes of ancient Iran, thereby transforming Media into a regional power. Name The name is the Latinised form of the Greek (), which was itself the Hellenisation of the Median name (), meaning "good ruler." The Greek author Diodorus Siculus named Cyaxares as (), which is the Hellenisation of the Median name , meaning "spear bearer." This name is similar to the Median form of his son Astyages's name, , meaning "spear thrower." Life and reign According to Herodotus, Cyaxares was the son of the Median king Phraortes. In the middle of the 7th century BCE, Phraortes led the Medes in a revolt against Assyria and was killed in battle, either against the Assyrians under their king Ashurbanipal, or aga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iranian Peoples
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in Central Asia around the mid-2nd millennium BC. At their peak of expansion in the mid-1st millennium BC, the territory of the Iranian peoples stretched across the entire Eurasian Steppe, from the Great Hungarian Plain in the west to the Ordos Plateau in the east and the Iranian Plateau in the south.: "From the first millennium b.c., we have abundant historical, archaeological and linguistic sources for the location of the territory inhabited by the Iranian peoples. In this period the territory of the northern Iranians, they being equestrian nomads, extended over the whole zone of the steppes and the wooded steppes and even the semi-deserts from the Great Hungarian Plain to the Ordos in northern China." ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deioces
Deioces ( grc, Δηιόκης), from the Old Iranian ''Dahyu-ka-'', meaning "the lands" (above, on and beneath the earth), was the founder and the first ''shah'' as well as priest of the Median Empire. His name has been mentioned in different forms in various sources, including the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who has written his name as Δηιόκης (''Dēiokēs''). The exact date of the era of Deioces' rule is not clear and probably covered most of the first half of the seventh century BC. According to Herodotus, Deioces governed for 53 years. Based on Herodotus's writings, Deioces was the first Median king to have gained independence from the Neo-Assyrian Empire. He contemplated the project and plan of forming a single Median government; and in an anarchistic era of the Medes, he tried to enforce justice in his own village and earn a credibility and fame as a neutral judge. Thus, the territory of his activity was expanded and the peoples of other villages also resorted t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Media (region)
Media ( peo, 𐎶𐎠𐎭, Māda, Middle Persian: ''Mād'') is a region of north-western Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Medes. During the Achaemenid period, it comprised present-day Azerbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan and western Tabaristan. As a satrapy under Achaemenid rule, it would eventually encompass a wider region, stretching to southern Dagestan in the north. However, after the wars of Alexander the Great, the northern parts were separated due to the Partition of Babylon and became known as '' Atropatene'', while the remaining region became known as ''Lesser Media''. History Under the Medes In 678 BC, Deioces united the Median tribes of Media and made the first Iranian Empire. His grandson Cyaxares managed to unite all Iranian tribes of Ancient Iran and made his empire a major power. When Cyaxares died he was succeeded by his son, Astyages, who was the last king of the Median Empire. Under the Achaemenids In 553 BC, Cyru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecbatana
Ecbatana ( peo, 𐏃𐎥𐎶𐎫𐎠𐎴 ''Hagmatāna'' or ''Haŋmatāna'', literally "the place of gathering" according to Darius I's inscription at Bisotun; Persian: هگمتانه; Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭧𐭬𐭲𐭠𐭭; Parthian: 𐭀𐭇𐭌𐭕𐭍 ''Ahmadān''; Akkadian: ''kura-gam-ta-nu''; Elamite: 𒀝𒈠𒁕𒈾 ''Ag-ma-da-na''; arc, אַחְמְתָא ''Aḥmeta''; grc, Ἀγβάτανα or ) was an ancient city, which was first the capital of Media in western Iran, and later was an important city in Persian, Seleucid, and Parthian empires.Nardo, Don. "Ecbatana." ''The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesopotamia'', edited by Robert B. Kebric, Greenhaven Press, 2007, pp. 97-98. ''Gale In Context: World History'', link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3205100129/WHIC?u=wylrc_uwyoming&sid=summon&xid=e9682d3c. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022. It is believed that Ecbatana is located in the Zagros Mountains, the east of central Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyrus The Great
Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Western Asia and much of Central Asia. Spanning from the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, the empire created by Cyrus was the largest the world had yet seen. At its maximum extent under his successors, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of the Balkans ( Eastern Bulgaria– Paeonia and Thrace–Macedonia) and Southeast Europe proper in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. The reign of Cyrus lasted about thirty years; his empire took root with his conquest of the Median Empire followed by the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He also led an expedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astyages
Astyages ( Median: ; Akkadian: ; Ancient Greek: grc, Αστυαγης, Astuagēs, , romanized: , , romanized: ; la, Astyages, , ; reigned 585–550 BC) was the last king of the Median Empire. The son of Cyaxares; he was dethroned in 550 BC by his grandson Cyrus the Great. Reign Astyages succeeded his father in 585 BCE, following the Battle of Halys, which ended a five-year war between the Lydians and the Medes. He inherited a large empire, ruled in alliance with his two brothers-in-law, Croesus of Lydia and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whose wife, Amytis, Astyages' sister, was the queen for whom Nebuchadnezzar was said to have built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. However, due to recent evidence, the garden was likely built by the Assyrian King Sennacherib. Married to Aryenis, the sister of King Croesus of Lydia, to seal the treaty between the two empires, Astyages ascended to the Median throne upon his father's death later that year. The ancient sources report almost not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Median Language
The Median language (also Medean or Medic) was the language of the Medes. It is an Old Iranian language and classified as belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which includes many other languages such as Old Azeri, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Zaza–Gorani, Kurdish, and Baluchi. Attestation Median is attested only by numerous loanwords in Old Persian. Nothing is known of its grammar, "but it shares important phonological isoglosses with Avestan, rather than Old Persian. Under the Median rule . . . Median must to some extent have been the official Iranian language in western Iran". No documents dating to Median times have been preserved, and it is not known what script these texts might have been in. "So far only one inscription of pre-Achaemenid times (a bronze plaque) has been found on the territory of Media. This is a cuneiform inscription composed in Akkadian, perhaps in the 8th century BCE, but no Median names are mentioned in it." Identity A distinction from ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as ''Ahura Mazda'' () as its supreme being. Historically, the unique features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, belief in free will and judgement after death, conception of heaven, hell, angels, and demons, among other concepts, may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including the Abrahamic religions and Gnosticism, Northern Buddhism, and Greek philosophy. With possible roots dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism enters recorded history around the middle of the 6th century BCE. It served as the state religion of the ancient Iran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persepolis Apadana Noerdliche Treppe Detail
, native_name_lang = , alternate_name = , image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis. , map = , map_type = Iran#West Asia , map_alt = , map_caption = , map_size = , altitude_m = , altitude_ref = , relief = yes , coordinates = , map_dot_label = , location = Marvdasht, Fars Province, Iran , region = , type = Settlement , part_of = , length = , width = , area = , volume = , diameter = , circumference = , height = , builder = , and , material = Limestone, mud-brick, cedar wood , built = 6th century BC , abandoned = , epochs = Achaemenid Empire , cultures = Persian , dependency_of = , occupants = , event = *Battle of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phraortes
Phraortes ( peo, 𐎳𐎼𐎺𐎼𐎫𐎡𐏁, translit=Fravartiš; grc, Φραόρτης, translit=Phraórtēs; died c. 653 BC), son of Deioces, was the second king of the Median Empire. Like his father Deioces, Phraortes started wars against Assyria, but was defeated and killed by Ashurbanipal, the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 – c. 627 BC). All information about him is from Herodotus. According to him (1.102), Phraortes was the son of Deioces and united all Median tribes into a single state. He also subjugated the Persians and Parthians while still a vassal of the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, and began to conquer other nations of Ancient Iran. After a rule of twenty-two years (c. 675 – c. 653 BC), he fell in battle against the Assyrians, who reasserted their subjugation of the Medes, Persians and Parthians. However, some scholars assume that he ruled for fifty-three years, c. 678 – c. 625. Phraortes is commonly identified with Kashtariti, a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Iranian Religion
Ancient Iranian religion or Iranian paganism, refers to the ancient beliefs and practices of the Iranian peoples before the rise of Zoroastrianism. The religion closest to it was the Historical Vedic religion (ancient Hinduism) that was practiced in the ancient Indian subcontinent. The major deities worshipped were Varuna and Mithra from Iran to Rome, but Agni was also worshipped, as names of kings and common public showing devotion to these three exist in most cases. But some sects, the precursors of the Magi, also worshipped Ahura Mazda, the chief of the Asuras. With the rise of Zoroaster and his new, reformatory religion; Assura Medha or Ahuramazda became the principle deities and Devas were relegated to the background. A lot of the attributes and commandments of Varuna, called Fahrana in Medean times, were later attributed to Ashura Medha by Zoroaster. The Iranian peoples emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in the 2nd-millennium BC, during which they came ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_p012_BAKU%2C_FIRE_TEMPLE_(cropped).jpg "Click for more on -> Zoroastrianism")
