The Medes[N 1] (/mdz/, Auld Persie Māda-, Ancient Greek: Μῆδοι, Hebrew: מָדַי‬) war an auncient Iranian fowk[N 2] wha lived in an aurie kent as Medie (northwestren Iran) an who spoke the Median leid.

Median Empire

Mādai
c. 678 BC–549 BC
A map of the Median Empire; based on Herodotus
A map of the Median Empire; based on Herodotus
CaipitalEcbatana
Common leidsMedian
Releegion
Old Iranian religion (related to Mithraism, early Zoroastrianism)
GovrenmentMonarchy
King 
• 678–665 BC
Deioces or Kashtariti
• 665–633 BC
Phraortes
• 625–585 BC
Cyaxares
• 589–549 BC
Astyages
Historical eraIron Age
• Established
c. 678 BC
• Conquered by Cyrus the Great
549 BC
Aurie
585 BC[1][2]2,800,000 km2 (1,100,000 sq mi)
Precedit bi
Succeedit bi
Neo-Assyrian Empire
Urartu
Achaemenid Empire

Notes

eedit
  1. Accordin tae the OED entry "Mede", the wird is frae Clessical Laitin Mēdus (uisually as plural, Mēdī) frae auncient Greek (Attic an Ionic) Μῆδος (Cypriot ma-to-i Μᾶδοι, plural) frae Auld Persie Māda.[3]
  2. A) "..and the Medes (Iranians of what is now north-west Iran).." EIEC (1997:30). B) "Archaeological evidence for the religion of the Iranian-speaking Medes of the .." (Diakonoff 1985, p. 140). C) ".. succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Median tribes" (frae Encyclopædia Britannica [4]). D) "Proto-Iranian split into Western (Median, and others) and Eastern (Scythian, Ossetic, Saka, Pamir and others)..." (Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007), The origin of the Indo-Iranians, J. P. Mallory (ed.), BRILL, p. 303, ISBN 978-90-04-16054-5)

References

eedit
  1. Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of world-systems research. 12 (2): 223. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  2. Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D." Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. doi:10.2307/1170959. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  3. OED Online "entry Mede, n.".:
  4. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Media (ancient region, Iran)