Median Empire

[ p. 31] The three Medias were inhabited by Median tribes--Busae, Paretaceni, Struchates, Arizanti, and Budii--to which was added the non-Iranian priestly tribe of the Magi. These Medes were still half-nomads. On the Assyrian reliefs they are depicted with short hair confined by a red fillet and with short curled beard; over a tunic is worn the sheepskin coat, still the traveler's best friend in the bitter winter of the plateau, which also required high-laced boots to plow through the deep snows. They were armed with only the long spear and were defended by the rectangular wicker shield. With these semi-nomads, aided by the Persians, Phraortes dared to attack Assyria, only to meet defeat and death in battle (653). Parsa [Persia] again became independent. Two years later (651), Cyrus I [grandfather of Cyrus the Great] joined with Elam in sending aid to Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon, who was in revolt against his brother Ashurbani-apal of Assyria; ... Cyaxares (Uvakhshatra) had succeeded his father Phraortes; appropriately he bore the surname of the wargod Verethragna. The [ p. 32] army was remodeled along modern lines and was divided into spearmen, bowmen, and cavalry. It would seem that it was Cyaxares who also changed the clothing and weapons. Two quite different forms are regularly illustrated on the sculptures at Persepolis. The Mede is at once distinguished by the wearing of the more original Iranian costume. On his head is the round, nodding felt cap with neck flap. A tight, long-sleeved leather tunic ends above the knee and is held in by a double belt with round buckle; over the tunic might be thrown on ceremonial occasions a cloak of honor. Full leather trousers and laced shoes with projecting tips indicated that their wearers spent much of their time on horseback. A short, pointed beard, a mustache, and hair bunched out on the neck were all elaborately curled, while earrings and necklace gave added ornament. The chief offensive weapon remained the spear of cornel wood with a flanged bronze point and the base held by a metal ferrule. To this spear many warriors added the bow, held in an extraordinarily elaborate bow case and serviced by arrows from a quiver. The Median costume is sharply contrasted with the form labeled Persian, distinguished by the fluted felt hat, the ankle-length flowing robe, and the low-laced shoes. With the Median army reorganized, the threat to Assyria became extreme. Ashur-bani-apal died, and even weaker successors did not dare to dissipate their strength by aiding their nominal allies such as Parsa. The successors of Ariaramnes and Cyrus were again forced to become vassals of Cyaxares. Once more the Assyrians were driven back, and Nineveh was actually under siege by the Medes when news arrived that Scythians had poured through the gate between the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea. Defeated by their chief, Madys, son of Protothyes, Cyaxares had to pay tribute for twenty-eight years until he killed their drunken leaders at a banquet. Nineveh was destroyed in 612. Amid the ruins, Cyaxares, now known in Babylonia as king of the Umman Manda (from his conquest of the Scythian hordes), made peace with Nabopolassar. Two years later, by the defeat of Ashur-uballit at Harran, Cyaxares destroyed the last pretense of Assyrian rule and won all northern Mesopotamia. [ p. 33] Since the road to the south was closed by the alliance with the Chaldean, who also held Susa, Cyaxares followed the Zagros as it bends westward into the cold uplands of Armenia, where other Iranian bands had destroyed the kingdom of Haldia and introduced their own Indo-European speech. The fertile valleys of Armenia led down through the Anti-Taurus into the broad plains of Cappadocia and to the river Halys, frontier of Lydia. Five years of warfare ended in a drawn battle at the time of a solar eclipse (May 28, 585) and a peace by which the Halys remained the boundary. The Cadusians along the Hyrcanian Sea refused submission, but the ruler of Parthia admitted himself a vassal. Four great powers--Media, Chaldaea, Lydia, and Egypt--divided among themselves the whole of the Near East, but, of these, only Media could be called an empire. Far more significant, Media represented the first empire founded by northern warriors who spoke an Iranian language and thought in northern terms. [ Editors' note : The Median Empire was roughly contemporary with the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, and their successors down to Nabonidus and Belshazzar. However, Media fell to Cyrus the Persian before Babylon did. Those commentators who consider Media as the second empire of Daniel 2 and 7, following Babylon, generally hold that the author of Daniel was a later writer who was mistaken in the facts of the Babylonian period.] Related Topics:

• Medes
• [Medes and Persians--the Name "Medes" Used]Create?
• Medes --Median Empire

Source: 1032. Medes--Median Empire

1. Topic 1032 The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Students' Source Book; The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 9. 1962