| Revision as of 23:44, 5 March 2007 view sourceBurntsauce (talk | contribs)8,390 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 23:46, 5 March 2007 view source 24.125.95.36 (talk) ←Replaced page with 'THis website iz wackapeedeea if you agree then change this to: This is as wierd as my little bro!! Even if you don't have 1!!!'Next edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| THis website iz wackapeedeea if you agree then change this to: | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=February 2007}} | |||
| This is as wierd as my little bro!! | |||
| :''For the town in Italy, see ].'' | |||
| Even if you don't have 1!!! | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| {{History of Iran}} | |||
| ], Persepolis.]] | |||
| ] | |||
| The '''Medes''' were an ], who lived in the north, western, and northwestern portions of present-day ], and roughly the areas of present day ], ], ], north of ] and ]. This region was known in Greek as '''Media''' or '''Medea''' ('''Μηδία'''; adjective ''Median'', antiquated also ''Medean''). By the ], the Medes were able to establish an empire that stretched from ] province (the modern-day ]) to north and ] and ], and which included many tributary states, including the ], which enventually supplanted and absorbed the Median empire in the ]. | |||
| The Medes are credited with the foundation of Iran as a nation and empire, and established the first Iranian empire, the largest of its day until ] established a unified empire of the Medes and ]s, often referred to as the ] ], by defeating his grandfather and ], ] the ] of Media. Until that point, all ] were referred to as Mede or Mada{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. Peoples as far north as the ] (]) have local historic traditions linking them to the Medes. | |||
| ==The six Mede tribes in Herodotus== | |||
| ], i. 101, lists the names of six Mede tribes: ''Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi. '' | |||
| Herodotus also mentions that "the Medes had exactly the same equipment as the Persians; and indeed the dress common to both is not so much Persian as Median." (7.62) "These Medes were called anciently by all people ]; but when Media, the Colchian, came to them from ], they changed their name. Such is the account which they themselves give." --- the Medes, History of Herodotus (7.7). ] is the Colchian-] witch of ] & the ], in ]. | |||
| ==Early historical references to Medes== | |||
| The origin and history of the Medes is quite obscure, as we possess almost no contemporary information, and not a single monument or inscription from Media itself. The story that ] gave (a list of nine kings, beginning with Arbaces, who is said to have destroyed ] in ], preserved in Diod. ii. 32 sqq. and copied by many later authors) has no historical value whatever; though some of his names may be derived from local traditions. | |||
| ] relates the Medes (OT Heb. Madai) to the biblical character, ], son of ]. "Now as to ] and ], the sons of Japhet; from Madai came the Madeans, who are called Medes, by the Greeks" ], I:6. | |||
| As Herodotus said, that the Medes use to refer to themselves as Aryans but when they were invaded took the Median identity, so they are not truly an Aryan tribe. Furthermore, Avesta and Sanskrit are the oldest Indo-European (more so than Thracian) language and Thracian is not a part of the Iranian group of langauges. Also, according to the ] (10:35-36), Madai had married a daughter of ], and preferred to live among Shem's descendants, rather than dwell in Japheth's allotted inheritance beyond the Black Sea; so he begged his brothers-in-law, Elam, Asshur and Arphaxad, until he finally received from them the land that was named after him, Media. This further explains how the tribes of non-Aryan stock migrated (or perhaps invaded) and interbred with the native Iranians. This can further be seen by ], King of Media marrying ] of ]. | |||
| Other ancient historians including ], ], ], ], and ], mention names such as ''Mantiane'', ''Martiane'', ''Matiane'', ''Matiene'', to designate the northern part of Media so then the north of Media must be the hearthland of Median culture which spread to their southern Aryan neighbors. | |||
| We can see how the Iranian element gradually became dominant; princes with Iranian names occasionally occur as rulers of other tribes. But the Gelae, Tapuri, ], Amardi, Utii and other tribes in northern Media and on the shores of the Caspian may not have been Iranian stock. Polybius (V. 44, 9), Strabo (xi. 507, 508, 514), and Pliny (vi. 46), considered the ''Anariaci'' to be among these tribes; but their name, meaning the "not-Arians", is probably a comprehensive designation for a number of smaller indigenous tribes. | |||
| The Medes, people of the ''Mada'', (the Greek form {{Polytonic|Μῆδοι}} is ] for {{Polytonic|Μᾶδοι}}), appear in history first in ]. Earliest records show that ] conqueror ] received tribute from the "Amadai" in connection with wars against the tribes of the ]. His successors undertook many expeditions against the Medes (''Madai''). | |||
| At this early stage, the Medes were usually mentioned together with another steppe tribe, the ]ns, who seem to have been the dominant group. They were divided into many districts and towns, under petty local chieftains; from the names in the ] inscriptions, it appears they had already adopted the ] of ]. | |||
| An Assyrian military report from ] lists 28 names of Mede chiefs, but only one of these is positively identified as Iranian. A second report from c. 700 BC lists 26 names; of these, 5 seem to be Iranian, the others are not. {{Fact|date=February 2007}} | |||
| ] in ] and ] subjected them up to "the far mountain Bikni," i.e. the ] (]) and the borders of the desert. If the account of Herodotus may be trusted, the Medes' dynasty derived its origin from ] (''Daiukku''), a Mede chieftain in the ], who was, along with his kinsmen, transported by Sargon to Hamath (Haniah) in ] in ]. This Daiukku seems to have originally been a governor of ] subject to Sargon, prior to his exile. | |||
| In spite of repeated rebellions by the early chieftains against the Assyrian yoke, the Medes paid tribute to Assyria under Sargon's successors, ], ] and ], whenever these kings marched in with their fierce armies. Assyrian forts located in Median territory (Zagros Mtns) at the time of Esarhaddon's campaign (ca. 676) included Bit-Parnakki, Bit-kari and Harhar (Kar-Sharrukin). | |||
| Furthermore, inscriptions from Assyrians, Urartians, Mannaeans and from other neighbours of Medes refer to Medes as ''Kuti'' or ''Kutu'' (and similar names) as an alternative name. | |||
| ==Mede Empire== | |||
| In the second half of the ], the Medes gained their independence and were united by a dynasty. The kings who established the Mede Empire are generally recognized to be ] and his son ]. They were probably chieftains of a nomadic Mede tribe in the desert and on the south shore of the ], the '''''Manda''''', mentioned by Sargon, and they likely founded the capital at ]. The later Babylonian king ] also designated the Medes and their kings always as ''Manda''. | |||
| ] | |||
| According to Herodotus, the conquests of Cyaxares the Mede were preceded by a Scythian invasion and domination lasting twenty-eight years (under Madius the Scythian, 653-625 BC). The Mede tribes seem to have come into immediate conflict with a settled state to the West known as ], allied with Assyria. Assyrian inscriptions state that the early Mede rulers, who had attempted rebellions against the Assyrians in the time of Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-pal, were allied with chieftains of the ''Ashguza'' (Scythians) and other tribes - who had come from the northern shore of the ] and invaded ] and ]; and ''Jeremiah'' and ''Zephaniah'' in the Old Testament agree with Herodotus that a massive invasion of ] and ] by northern barbarians took place in ]. The state of Mannae was finally conquered and assimilated by the Medes in the year 616 BC. | |||
| In 612 BC, Cyaxares conquered ], and with the help of ] the Chaldean, succeeded in destroying the Assyrian capital, ]; and by 606 BC, the remaining vestiges of Assyrian control. From then on, the Mede king ruled over much of Iran, Assyria and northern Mesopotamia, Armenia and ]. His power was very dangerous to his neighbors, and the exiled ]s expected the destruction of ] by the Medes (Isaiah 13, 14m 21; Jerem. 1, 51.). | |||
| When Cyaxares attacked ], the kings of ] and ] intervened and negotiated a peace in ], whereby the ] was established as the Medes' frontier with Lydia. ] of Babylon married a daughter of Cyaxares, and an equilibrium of the great powers was maintained until the rise of the Persians under ]. | |||
| About the internal organization of the Mede Empire, we know that the Greeks adopted many ceremonial elements of the Persian court, the costume of the king, etc., through Media. | |||
| ==Persian dominance == | |||
| In ], ], King of Persia, rebelled against his grandfather, the Mede King ], son of Cyaxares; he finally won a decisive victory in ] resulting in Astyages' capture by his own dissatisfied nobles, who promptly turned him over to the triumphant Cyrus. Thus were the Medes subjected to their close kin, the Persians. In the new empire they retained a prominent position; in honor and war, they stood next to the Persians; their court ceremony was adopted by the new sovereigns, who in the summer months resided in ]; and many noble Medes were employed as officials, ]s and generals. After the assassination of the usurper Smerdis, a Mede Fravartish (Phraortes), claiming to be a scion of Cyaxares, tried to restore the Mede kingdom, but was defeated by the Persian generals and executed in Ecbatana (Darius in the Behistun inscr.). Another rebellion, in 409 BC, against ] (Xenophon, Hellen. ~. 2, 19) was of short duration. But the non-Aryan tribes to the north, especially the Cadusii, were always troublesome; many abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are mentioned{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. | |||
| Under Persian rule, the country was divided into two satrapies: the south, with Ecbatana and Rhagae (Rey near modern Tehran), Media proper, or Greater Media, as it is often called, formed in Darius' organization the eleventh satrapy (Herodotus iii. 92), together with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians; the north, the district of Matiane (see above), together with the mountainous districts of the Zagros and Assyria proper (east of the Tigris) was united with the Alarodians and Saspirians in eastern Armenia, and formed the eighteenth satrapy (Herod. iii. 94; cf. v. 49, 52, VII. 72). | |||
| When the Persian empire decayed and the Cadusii and other mountainous tribes made themselves independent, eastern Armenia became a special satrapy, while Assyria seems to have been united with Media; therefore ] in the ''Anabasis'' always designates Assyria by the name of "Media". | |||
| ==Under the Seleucids== | |||
| ] occupied the satrapy of Media in the summer of ]. In 328 he appointed as '']'' a former general of Darius called ] (Atrupat), whose daughter was married to ] in 324, according to ]. In the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian ]; but the north, far off and of little importance to the generals squabbling over Alexander's inheritance, was left to Atropates. | |||
| While southern Media, with ], passed to the rule of ], and afterwards (about 310 BC) to ], Atropates maintained himself in his own satrapy and succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the partition of the country, that Persia had introduced, became lasting; the north was named ] (in Pliny, ''Atrapatene''; in Ptolemy, ''Tropatene''), after the founder of the dynasty, a name still said to be preserved in the modern form ']'. | |||
| The capital of Atropatene was Gazaca in the central plain, and the castle ], discovered on the Araz river by archaeologists in April 2005. The kings had a strong and warlike army, especially ] (Polyb. v. 55; Strabo xi. 253). Nevertheless, King ] was forced by ] in ] to conclude a disadvantageous treaty (Polyb. v. 55), and in later times, the rulers became dependent in turn upon the ], upon ], and in the time of ] who defeated their king Darius (Appian, Mithr. 108), upon ] (who invaded Atropatene) and upon ] of Rome. In the time of ] (AD ]), the dynasty still existed; later, the country seems to have become a Parthian province. | |||
| Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was least of all other countries influenced by ]; there exists not even a single coin of its rulers. Southern Media remained a province of the ] for a century and a half, and Hellenism was introduced everywhere. Media was surrounded everywhere by Greek towns, in pursuance of Alexander's plan to protect it from neighboring barbarians, according to ] (x. 27). Only Ecbatana retained its old character. But ] became the Greek town ''Europus''; and with it ] (xi. 524) names ], ] or Achais. Most of them were founded by Seleucus I and his son ]. | |||
| ==Under the Arsacids== | |||
| ] | |||
| In ], the satrap ] tried to make himself independent (there exist bronze coins with his name and the royal title), together with his brother ], satrap of Persis, but they were defeated and killed by Antiochus the Great. In the same way, the Mede satrap ] took the diadem and conquered Babylonia; on his coins he calls himself the great king Timarchus; but again the legitimate king, Demetrius I, succeeded in subduing the rebellion, and Timarchus was slain. But with Demetrius I, the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire began, brought about chiefly by the intrigues of the ], and shortly afterwards, in about 150, the Parthian king ] conquered Media (Justin xli. 6). | |||
| From this time Media remained subject to the ] or Parthians, who changed the name of Rhagae, or Europus, into ''Arsacia'' (Strabo xi. 524), and divided the country into five small provinces (Isidorus Charac.). From the Parthians, it passed in ] to the ], together with Atropatene. | |||
| ==Under the Sassanids== | |||
| By this time the older tribes of Aryan Iran had lost their distinct character and had been amalgamated into one people, the Iranians. The revival of Zoroastrianism, enforced everywhere by the Sassanids, completed this development. Atropatene, already center of the fire cult during Parthian times (see ]) now became the site of one of the ]. Under the patronage of ], the 'priest of priests' of the early Sassanid kings, Arsacia/Rhagae advanced to become one of the two (the other being Ishtakhr, ancestral seat of the Sassanid priest-kings) centers of the Zoroastrian priesthood. | |||
| ==Median language== | |||
| {{Main article|Median language}} | |||
| ], in his "Geography", mentions the affinity of Mede with other ]: | |||
| {{quotation|The name of'' ] ''is further extended to a part of ] and of Media, as also to the ] and ] on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations.|Geography, 15.8}} | |||
| Words probably of Mede origin appear in various other Iranian dialects, including ]. For example, ] mentions the word ''Spaka'' (]), still found in Iranic languages such as ]. Other words also thought to be of Mede origin (I.M Diakonoff, Medes) include | |||
| *''Farnah'': Divine glory; (]: ''khvar''{{Unicode|ɘ}}''nah''), | |||
| *''Paridaiza'': ], (as in Pardis پردیس) | |||
| *''Vazraka'': Great, (as ] ''Bozorg'' بزرگ), | |||
| *''Vispa'': All, (as in Avestan), | |||
| *''Xshayathiya'' (royal, royalty). | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *{{1911}} | |||
| {{History of Anatolia}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 23:46, 5 March 2007
THis website iz wackapeedeea if you agree then change this to: This is as wierd as my little bro!! Even if you don't have 1!!!