Phraortes | |
---|---|
King of the Medes | |
Reign | 678 – 625 BCE |
Predecessor | Deioces |
Successor | Cyaxares |
Died | 625 BCE |
Dynasty | Median dynasty |
Father | Deioces |
Religion | Ancient Iranian religion |
Phraortes, [lower-alpha 1] son of Deioces, was the second king of the Median kingdom.
Like his father Deioces, Phraortes started wars against Assyria, but was defeated and killed by the Assyrian king, probably Ashurbanipal (r. 668-631 BCE).
All information about him is from Herodotus. According to him (1.102), Phraortes was the son of Deioces and united all Median tribes into a single state. He also subjugated the Persians and Parthians and other nations of ancient Iran. He ruled for twenty-two years (c. 675 – c. 653 BC), however, some scholars assume that he ruled for fifty-three years, c. 678 – c. 625. Phraortes is commonly identified with Kashtariti, a chieftain in Media, although some scholars consider such an identification doubtful. He was later succeeded by his son Cyaxares. [4]
Ahasuerus is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official first appearing in the Tanakh in the Book of Esther and later in the Book of Tobit. It is a transliteration of either Xerxes I or Artaxerxes I; both are names of multiple Achaemenid dynasty Persian kings.
Artaxerxes I was the fifth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, from 465 to December 424 BC. He was the third son of Xerxes I.
The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia in the vicinity of Ecbatana. Their consolidation in Iran is believed to have occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains unknown.
Shapur III, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 383 to 388. He was the son of Shapur II and succeeded his uncle Ardashir II.
Ecbatana was an ancient city, the capital of the Median kingdom, and the first capital in Iranian history. It later became the summer capital of the Achaemenid and Parthian empires. It was also an important city during the Seleucid and Sasanian empires. It is believed that Ecbatana is located in the Zagros Mountains, the east of central Mesopotamia, on Hagmatana Hill. Ecbatana's strategic location and resources probably made it a popular site even before the 1st millennium BC. Along with Athens in Greece, Rome in Italy and Susa in Khuzestan, Ecbatana is one of the few ancient cities in the world that is still alive and important, representing the current-day Hamadan.
Bardiya or Smerdis, also named as Tanyoxarces by Ctesias, was a son of Cyrus the Great and the younger brother of Cambyses II, both Persian kings. There are sharply divided views on his life. Bardiya either ruled the Achaemenid Empire for a few months in 522 BCE, or was impersonated by a magus called Gaumata, whose name is given by Ctesias as Sphendadates, until he was toppled by Darius the Great.
Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages and is the ancestor of Middle Persian. Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as ariya (Iranian). Old Persian is close to both Avestan and the language of the Rig Veda, the oldest form of the Sanskrit language. All three languages are highly inflected.
Cambyses I was king of Anshan from c. 580 to 559 BC and the father of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II), younger son of Cyrus I, and brother of Arukku. He should not be confused with his better-known grandson Cambyses II.
Deioces was the founder and the first King of the Median kingdom, an ancient polity in western Asia. His name has been mentioned in different forms in various sources, including the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus.
Cyaxares was the third king of the Medes. He ascended to the throne in 625 BCE, after his father Phraortes lost his life in a battle against the Assyrians.
Cyrus II of Persia, commonly known as Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly and eventually conquering most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create what would soon become the largest polity in human history at the time. The Achaemenid Empire's largest territorial extent was achieved under Darius the Great, whose rule stretched from the Balkans and the rest of Southeast Europe in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.
Median was the language of the Medes. It is an extinct ancient Iranian language and classified as a distinct language belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which includes many other more recently attested languages such as Kurdish, Old Azeri, Talysh, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Zaza–Gorani and Baluchi.
Arsames was the son of Ariaramnes and the grandfather of Darius I. He was traditionally claimed to have briefly been king of Persia during the Achaemenid dynasty, and to have given up the throne and declared loyalty to his relative Cyrus II of Persia before retiring to his family estate in the Persian heartland of Parsa, living there peacefully for the rest of his life, perhaps nominally exercising the duties of a "lesser king" under the authority of the "Great King". However, the claim that he or his son were ever kings is rejected by historians such as Pierre Briant. In an inscription allegedly found in Hamadan he is called "king of Persia", but the document is widely argued to be a fake, either modern or ancient. Another attestation of his reign is the Behistun Inscription, where his grandson Darius I lists him among his ancestors, although he does not explicitly mention him as being one of the anonymous eight kings whom he claims preceded him.
Astyages was the last king of the Median kingdom, reigning from 585 to 550 BCE. The son of Cyaxares, he was dethroned by the Persian king Cyrus the Great.
The Median dynasty was, according to the ancient Greek historian 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 Median Empire, a mighty empire that included large parts of Iran and eastern Anatolia.
Media is a region of north-western Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Medes. During the Achaemenid period, it comprised present-day Iranian Azerbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan and western Tabaristan. As a satrapy under Achaemenid rule, it would eventually encompass a wider region, stretching to southern Dagestan in the north. However, after the wars of Alexander the Great, the northern parts were separated due to the Partition of Babylon and became known as Atropatene, while the remaining region became known as Lesser Media.
Kaštaritu was a Median chieftain. He is mentioned as "King of the Medes" in an inscription dated 678 BCE. His lands were presumably located along the northeastern border of Assyria. Amongst his possessions was the city of Kār-Kaššî. Kaštariti forged an alliance of the Medes with the Cimmerians, Mannaeans, and Scythians against Assyria.
Early Iranians had their own regional elected councils. By the time of the Medians, the city-states were administered in a democratic fashion.
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.
Cyaxares I one of the Near East tribal rulers of the end of the 8th century BC. Cyaxares I, who, according to Berosus and Abydenus, was also called Astyages, and also Astyages, the father of Cyaxares II