3. The Early Medes

In his twenty-fourth campaign in the year 836 Shahnaneser II., king of Assyria, made an expedition into Namri, and passing on through the country met for the first time the Amadai or Madai, that is, the Medea of the Indo-European family. He claims a great victory over them, carrying away prisoners and devastating their cities. Their recuperative power was great, for during the reign of Adad-nirari V. (formerly known as Ramman-nirari III. or IV. or Adad-nirari III. or IV.; 810-782 B.C.) the eponym canon sets down no less than eight campaigns and still another under AsshurDan III. (771-754 B.C.). The Medea seem to have increased in numbers, and then to have mastered more thoroughly the primitive population and to have gained rapidly in power with the passing years in spite of the great efforts of the Assyrians to overcome them. During the next Assyrian reign (Tiglath-Pileser IV.; 745-727 s.c.) two great expeditions were led against the Medea in 744 and in 737, in the former of which the Assyrian king claims to have carried away 60,500 captives, and in the latter 8,650. The king always refers to them as the "dangerous" Medea, and such he doubtless found them to be. There was an almost continuous battery of attacks upon the Medea during the reign of Sargon II., 722-705; and Sennacherib (705-681) received tribute from " the far-away Medea, whose names no one of my predecessors had known."

4. Early Migrations; the Cimmerians

5. Ecbatana

As Assyrian power dwindled these new invaders east of Assyria were building up a new people, the old Indo-Europeans melting together with the new, and soon this new combination was able to found a kingdom of its own with the capital city Ecbatana. From many sources there come down memories of that great city. The ancient Persians called it Hagmatana, and the Babylonians Agamatanu, while the Greeks catching a false quantity made it Ecb& tans. It is perhaps safe to suppose that it is the city called Amadana by Tiglath-Pileser I., and in this case its origin would go back to the twelfth century before Christ. Herodotus, on the other hand, ascribes its origin to Deiooes, whom he regards as the first great ruler of the Median empire about 700 B.c., who is represented as having erected great walls of defense, "the walls being arranged in circles one within another." From this time onward, the stream of Median history. is in full flow, and the Greek sources give valuable sidelights upon the native monuments.

6. Deioces and Astyages 1

Herodotus makes Deioces the ruler of the Medea 700-647 B.C. The successor of Deioces, according to Herodotus, was Phraortes (646-625), but of him nothing is learned from the inscription material which has come down, and the name is therefore suspect. It has been suggested by Winckler that the real ruler of Media at this time was Astyagea I., and that it was he who was first invoked by the Babylonians to lend aid against the Assyrians. There is no solid evidence for this and the statement must suffice that the next king of the Medea, Cyaxares (624-585), is the first really historical monarch of theMedian empire. His name is handed down by Darius the Great in the form Uvakshatara, and he it was who broke the Scythian power and formed an alliance with the Babylonians. Urged onward by Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, Cysaaree attacked Nineveh and in the year 606 B.C. laid it waste, and with it the upper part of Mesopotamia and the Babylonian cities which had cast in their lot with the Assyrians. By this one stroke the Medea were enriched through the vast plunder which Nineveh provided, but also they had sprung from insignificance into the position of a world power. The Median armies flushed with victory swept

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onward into the northwest, conquering as they went, until the river Halys became the western boundary of the new empire which extended eastward to the confines of Elam. It was a vast and powerful empire which Cyaxares left to his son. Astyages (584-550) was not able to keep up the good relations with Babylonia which had continued since the very beginning of his father's reign and there is evidence of a struggle of some kind with Neriglissar. When Nabonidus became king of Babylon a Median army was besieging Harran, and the Babylonians and Medea were enemies.