Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/39

 We can see how the Iranian element gradually became dominant: princes with Iranian names occasionally occur as rulers of these tribes. But the Gelae, Tapuri, Cadusii, Amardi, Utii and other tribes in northern Media and on the shores of the Caspian were not Iranians. With them Polybius v. 44, 9, Strabo xi. 507, 508, 514, and Pliny vi. 46, mention the Anariaci, whom they consider as a particular tribe; but in reality their name, the “Not-Arians,” is the comprehensive designation of all these small tribes.

In the second half of the 7th century the Medians gained their independence and were united by a dynasty, which, if we may trust Herodotus, derived its origin from (q.v.), a Median chieftain in the Zagros, who was, with his kinsmen, transported by Sargon to Hamath (Hamah) in Syria in 715 The kings, who created the Median Empire, were Phraortes and his son Cyaxares. Probably they were chieftains of a nomadic Median tribe in the desert, the Manda, mentioned by Sargon; for the Babylonian king Nabonidus designates the Medians and their kings always as Manda. The origin and history of the Median Empire is quite obscure, as we possess, almost no contemporary information, and not a single monument or inscription from Media itself. Our principal source is Herodotus, who wrongly makes Deioces the first king and uniter of the whole nation, and dates their independence from c. 710—i.e. from the time when the Assyrian supremacy was at its height. But his account contains real historical elements, whereas the story which Ctesias gave (a list of nine kings, beginning with Arbaces, who is said to have destroyed Nineveh about 880, preserved in Diod. ii. 32 sqq. and copied by many later authors) has no historical value whatever, although some of his names may be derived from local traditions. According to Herodotus, the conquests of Cyaxares were interrupted by an invasion of the Scythians, who founded an empire in western Asia, which lasted twenty-eight years. From the Assyrian prayers to the Sun-god, mentioned above, we learn that the Median dynasts, who tried rebellions against the Assyrians in the time of Esar-haddon and Assur-bani-pal, were allied with chieftains of the Cimmerians (who had come from the northern shore of the Black Sea and invaded Armenia and Asia Minor), of the Saparda, Ashguza and other tribes; and from Jeremiah and Zephaniah we know that a great invasion of Syria and Palestine by northern barbarians really took place in 626 With these facts the traditions of Herodotus must in some way be connected; but at present it is impossible to regain the history of these times. The only certain facts are that in 606 Cyaxares succeeded in destroying Nineveh and the other cities of Assyria (see and ).

From then the Median king ruled over the greatest part of Iran, Assyria and northern Mesopotamia, Armenia and Cappadocia. His power was very dangerous to their neighbours, and the exiled Jews expected the destruction of Babylonia by the Medes (Isa. xiii., xiv., xxi.; Jerem. l., li.). When Cyaxares attacked Lydia, the kings of Cilicia and Babylon intervened and negotiated a peace in 585, by which the Halys was established as the boundary. Nebuchadrezzar married a daughter of Cyaxares, and an equilibrium of the great powers was maintained till the rise of Cyrus.

About the internal organization of the Median Empire, we know only that the Greeks derive a great part of the ceremonial of the Persian court, the costume of the king, &c., from Media. But it is certain that the national union of the Median clans was the work of their kings; and probably the capital (q.v.) was created by them.

By the rebellion of Cyrus, king of Persia, against his suzerain Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, in 553, and his victory in 550, the Medes were subjected to the Persians. In the new empire they retained a prominent position; in honour and war they stood next to the Persians; the ceremonial of their court was adopted by the new sovereigns who in the summer months resided in Ecbatana, and many noble Medes were employed as officials, satraps and generals. After the assassination of the usurper Smerdis, a Mede Fravartish (Phraortes), who pretended

to be of the race of Cyaxares, tried to restore the Median kingdom, but was defeated by the Persian generals and executed in Ecbatana (Darius in the Behistun inscr.). Another rebellion, in 409, against Darius II. (Xenophon, Hellen. i. 2, 19) was of short duration. But the non-Aryan tribes of the north, especially the Cadusians, were always troublesome; many abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are mentioned.

Under the Persian rule the country was divided into two satrapies. The south, with Ecbatana and Rhagae (Rai), Media proper, or “Great 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 empire decayed and the Carduchi and other mountainous tribes made themselves independent, eastern Armenia became a special satrapy, while Assyria seems to have been united with Media; therefore Xenophon in the Anabasis ii. 4, 27; iii. 5, 15; vii. 8, 25; cf. iii. 4, 8 sqq. always designates Assyria by the name of Media.

Alexander occupied Media in the summer of 330; in 328 he appointed Atropates, a former general of Darius (Arrian iii. 8, 4), as satrap (iv. 18, 3, vi. 29, 3), whose daughter was married to Perdiccas in 324 (Arrian vii. 4, 5). In the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian Peithon; but the north, which lay far off and was of little importance for the generals who fought for the inheritance of Alexander, was left to Atropates. While southern Media with Ecbatana passed to the rule of Antigonus, and afterwards (about 310) to Seleucus I.; Atropates maintained himself in his satrapy and succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the partition of the country, which the Persian had introduced, became lasting; the north was named Atropatene (in Plin. vi. 42, Atrapatene; in Ptolem. vi. 2, 5, Tropatene; in Polyb. v. 44 and 55 corrupted in ), after the founder of the dynasty, a name which is preserved in the modern Azerbaijan; cf. Nöldeke, “Atropatene,” in Zeitschrift ''der deutschen morgenl. Gesellschaft'', 34, 692 sqq. and Marquart, Eranshahr, p. 108 sqq. The capital was Gazaca in the central plain, and the strong castle Phraaspa (Dio Cass. xlix. 26; Plut. Anton. 38; Ptol. vi. 2, 10) or Vera (Strabo xi. 523), probably identical with the great ruin Takhti Suleiman, with remains of Sassanid fire-altars and of a later palace. The kings had a strong and warlike army, especially cavalry (Polyb. v. 55; Strabo xi. 253). Nevertheless, King Artabazanes was forced by Antiochus the Great in 220 to conclude a disadvantageous treaty (Polyb. v. 55), and in later times the rulers became in turn dependent on the Parthians, on Tigranes of Armenia, and in the time of Pompey who defeated their king Darius (Appian, Mithr. 108), on Antonius (who invaded Atropatene) and on Augustus of Rome. In the time of Strabo ( 17), the dynasty existed still (p. 523); in later times the country seems to have become a Parthian province.

Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was least of all influenced by Hellenism; there exists not even a single coin of its rulers. But the opinion of modern authors—that it had been a special refuge of Zoroastrianism—is based upon a wrong etymology of the name (which is falsely explained as “country of fire-worship”), and has no foundation whatever. There can be no doubt that the kings adhered to the Persian religion; but it is not probable that it was deeply rooted among their subjects, especially among the non-Aryan tribes.

Southern Media remained a province of the Seleucid Empire for a century and a half, and Hellenism was introduced everywhere. “Media is surrounded everywhere by Greek towns, in pursuance of the plan of Alexander, which protect it against the neighbouring barbarians,” says Polybius (x. 27). Only Ecbatana retained its old character. But Rhagae became a Greek town, Europus; and with it Strabo (xi. 524) names Laodicea, Apamea, Heraclea or Achais (cf. Plin. vi. 48). Most of them were founded