Kashtariti (Akkadian: 
Kaštariti; [1] Median: 𐎧𐏁𐎰𐎼𐎡𐎫Xšaθrita; [2] fl. 670s BCE) was a Median chieftain. He is mentioned as "King of the Medes" in an inscription dated 678 BCE. [3] His lands were presumably located along the northeastern border of Assyria. Amongst his possessions was the city of Karkašši. [4] Kashtariti forged an alliance of the Medes with the Cimmerians, Mannaeans, and Scythians against Assyria.
It has been suggested that Kashtariti can be identified as Median king Phraortes. Some scholars, however, deny such a connection based on historical evidence and linguistic differences in the native Iranian names of the two rulers.
Assyrian texts mention Kashtariti's incursions into Assyria, then under leadership of Esarhaddon. Oracles were commonly sought by Assyrian rulers for such occasions, invoking the gods to assess the situation and guide them towards help. Esarhaddon was no stranger to such practice, frequently turning to these oracles for advice. Before decisions could be made by these oracles, animals would be sacrificed and omens would then be interpreted based on the positions of the carcasses. Decisions would then be made based on these omens. [5] In this instance, Esarhaddon turned to a priest of the sun god, Shamash, for guidance. [6] Tablets dating from the 7th-century BCE, mostly found in Nineveh, describe multiple "oracle requests" in relation to Kashtariti in particular. [7] Among the questions raised to Shamash during these oracle requests were whether Kashtariti was a threat to the Assyrians, and whether he would conquer several Assyrian cities. [8] Kashtariti had asked another Median chieftain, Mamitiarshu, for assistance in attacking the Assyrian city of Kishsassu. [9] One recorded oracle request purports that Esarhaddon feared the loss of the city to the Medians. [10] Kashtariti also planned a raid on the Assyrian town of Kilmân with the Mannaeans and Saparda. [11]
It is clear that Kashtariti's incursions were not a sole occurrence as Esarhaddon had constantly sought oracles to help deal with his bothersome campaign into Assyrian territories. [12] One oracle request suggests that Kashtariti attempted to make peace with the Assyrians. He sent a messenger to the Assyrian royal court, in the hopes of creating a treaty. Esarhaddon pleaded to Shamash, asking whether he should agree to the peace [13] or interrogate the messenger and kill him. [14] A subsequent oracle request suggests that peace was never achieved. Instead, the Assyrians possibly mounted a retaliation against Kashtariti and his forces, with the intention of finally ending attacks from Kashtariti. [15] Kashtariti's alliance was divided due to internal disagreements, and Kashtariti's campaign in Assyria ended before 673 BCE. Some Scythian tribes continued attacks into Assyria. Other Scythian tribes, under the leadership of Bartatua, sought to marry Esarhaddon's daughter to create an alliance with Esarhaddon as a means to end the hostilities. Other Median tribes in Kashtariti's alliance also settled peace with the Assyrians. [16]
Chaldea was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BC, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was located in the marshy land of the far southeastern corner of Mesopotamia and briefly came to rule Babylon. The Hebrew Bible uses the term כשדים (Kaśdim) and this is translated as Chaldaeans in the Greek Old Testament, although there is some dispute as to whether Kasdim in fact means Chaldean or refers to the south Mesopotamian Kaldu.
Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia. It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. 1894 BC. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called "the country of Akkad", a deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire. It was often involved in rivalry with the older ethno-linguistically related state of Assyria in the north of Mesopotamia and Elam to the east in Ancient Iran. Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Old Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi and reverted to a small kingdom centered around the city of Babylon.
The Cimmerians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asia. Although the Cimmerians were culturally Scythian, they formed an ethnic unit separate from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related and who displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.
Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sennacherib in 681 BC to his own death in 669. The third king of the Sargonid dynasty, Esarhaddon is most famous for his conquest of Egypt in 671 BC, which made his empire the largest the world had ever seen, and for his reconstruction of Babylon, which had been destroyed by his father.
Ashurbanipal was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Inheriting the throne as the favored heir of his father Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal's 38-year reign was among the longest of any Assyrian king. Though sometimes regarded as the apogee of ancient Assyria, his reign also marked the last time Assyrian armies waged war throughout the ancient Near East and the beginning of the end of Assyrian dominion over the region.
Cyaxares was the third king of the Medes.
Mannaea was an ancient kingdom located in northwestern Iran, south of Lake Urmia, around the 10th to 7th centuries BC. It neighbored Assyria and Urartu, as well as other small buffer states between the two, such as Musasir and Zikirta.
Madyes was a Scythian king who ruled during the period of the Scythian presence in West Asia between 659–625 BCE. Madyes was the son of the Scythian king Bartatua and the Assyrian princess Šērūʾa-ēṭirat, and was a close ally of the Neo-Assyrian Empire whose king Ashurbanipal was his uncle. His reign brought Scythian power to a peak and saw extensive Scythian ("Iškuza") settlement in West Asia.
The Median empire, also known as the Cyaxarid dynasty, was, according to Herodotus, a dynasty composed of four kings who ruled for 150 years under the Median Empire. If Herodotus' story is true, the Medes were unified by a man named Deioces, the first of the four kings who would rule the Medan Empire, a mighty empire that included large parts of Iran and eastern Anatolia.
The Battle of Nineveh is conventionally dated between 613 and 611 BC, with 612 BC being the most supported date. Rebelling against the Assyrians, an allied army which combined the forces of Medes and the Babylonians besieged Nineveh and sacked 750 hectares of what was, at that time, one of the greatest cities in the world. The fall of Nineveh led to the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire over the next three years as the dominant state in the Ancient Near East. Archeological records show that the capital of the once mighty Assyrian Empire was extensively de-urbanized and depopulated in the decades and centuries following the battle. A garbled account of the fall of the city later led to the story of the legendary king Sardanapalus.
Scythia or Scythica, also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
Tugdammē or Dugdammē, also known by the Greeks as Lygdamis and Dygdamis, was a Cimmerian king of the mid-seventh century BC.
Bartatua or Protothyes was a Scythian king who ruled during the period of the Scythian presence in Western Asia in the 7th century BCE.
Ishpakaia was a Scythian king who ruled during the period of the Scythian presence in Western Asia in the 7th century BCE.
Kishsassu or Kishassu was a city in ancient Assyria. It is mentioned tablets found in Nineveh, dating from the 7th-century BCE.
The timeline of ancient Assyria can be broken down into three main eras: the Old Assyrian period, Middle Assyrian Empire, and Neo-Assyrian Empire. Modern scholars typically also recognize an Early period preceding the Old Assyrian period and a post-imperial period succeeding the Neo-Assyrian period.
The Sargonid dynasty was the final ruling dynasty of Assyria, ruling as kings of Assyria during the Neo-Assyrian Empire for just over a century from the ascent of Sargon II in 722 BC to the fall of Assyria in 609 BC. Although Assyria would ultimately fall during their rule, the Sargonid dynasty ruled the country during the apex of its power and Sargon II's three immediate successors Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal are generally regarded as three of the greatest Assyrian monarchs. Though the dynasty encompasses seven Assyrian kings, two vassal kings in Babylonia and numerous princes and princesses, the term Sargonids is sometimes used solely for Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal.
Šērūʾa-ēṭirat, called Saritrah in later Aramaic texts, was an ancient Assyrian princess of the Sargonid dynasty, the eldest daughter of Esarhaddon and the older sister of his son and successor Ashurbanipal. She is the only one of Esarhaddon's daughters to be known by name and inscriptions listing the royal children suggest that she outranked several of her brothers, such as her younger brother Aššur-mukin-paleʾa, but ranked below the crown princes Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin. Her importance could be explained by her possibly being the oldest of all Esarhaddon's children.
The Assyrian conquest of Egypt covered a relatively short period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 673 to 663 BCE. The conquest of Egypt not only placed a land of great cultural prestige under Assyrian rule but also brought the Neo-Assyrian Empire to its greatest extent.
Sakez also known as Sekez, Sekakez and Scyth (Eskit) was a sizable urban settlement and historical ancient city in the first millennium BC in Iran. It was the political and military capital of Scythians in western Iran and one of the few ancient cities that has been the residence of people and the center of civilization and it still is. Archaeologists believe that the present-day city of Saqqez in Kurdistan is the remnant of the city of Sakez, which takes its name from the Scythians and, with a slight change in pronunciation, is still called by the same name.