The invasion of Temen-bar was probably more like an Arab raid than a military conquest. His successors on the Assyrian throne were almost in cessantly engaged in hostilities with the Medes (Rawlinson's Herodot., i. 404); and Sargon appears to have been the first who attempted to occupy the country with regular garrisons. He built cities in Media, and reduced the people to tribute (Rawlin son's Herod., 1. c.; and Comment.) Sargon was that king of Assyria `who took Samaria, and carried Israel captive,' and placed some of them the cities of the Medes' (2 Kings xvii. 6; cf. xviii. 17; Is. xx. t). The truth of Scripture his tory is here strongly confirmed by monuments recently disentombed from the ruins of Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. On its walls are inscribed the records of his conquests, in which both Media and Judwa are mentioned—the former as on the eastern, and the latter on the western limits of his vast empire (Rawlinson's Comment., p. 61; Raw linson's Herodot., i., p. Media was not yet a kingdom. It was occupied by a number of petty chiefs, each ruling his own tribe. From these chiefs the Assyrian monarchs exacted tribute. The tribes increased in numbers, influence, and power. They held a country natu rally strong. The Assyrian yoke was galling to their free sprits, and probably this first induced them to unite their forces, elect a common leader, and assert their independence. The exact date of this revolution cannot now be fixed, but the fact of it is certain. Herodotus' account of it is as fol lows The Assyrians had held the empire of Upper Asia for a space of 520 years, when the Medes set the example of revolt. They took arms for the recovery of their freedom, and fought a battle with the Assyrians, in which they behaved with such gallantry as to shake off the yoke of servitude' (i. 95). He then tells how the empire was formed by a certain Deioces, who, in conse quence of his wisdom and justice, was elected monarch by the six tribes composing the nation (i. 96 lot). Deioces built the great city of Ecbatana; and after a prosperous reign of fifty-three years left the throne to his son Phraortes. Phraortes conquered Persia, vastly enlarged the Median empire, and reigned twenty-two years. He was succeeded by his son Cyaxeres. During his reign, while engaged in a war against Nineveh, Media was overrun by a horde of Scythians, who held a great part of Western Asia for twenty-eight years. The Scythian leaders were at length treacherously murdered by Cyaxeres, and the Median monarchy re-established. He ruled forty years, and then left the kingdom to his son Astyages, whose daughter Mandane was married to a Persian noble, and became mother of the great Cyrus. Accord ing to this narrative, the Median monarchy was established about B.C. 708 (Rawlinson's Herodot., i. There is good reason to believe, however, that the early portion of the narrative is apocry phal, and that Cyaxeres was the real founder of the Median empire. He is so represented by most ancient historians (Diodorus Sic., ii. 32 ; YEschy lus, Ferso, 761 ; Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. iii.) The Assyrian monumental annals are almost com plete down to the reign of the son of Eserhadden (B.c. 640), and they contain no mention of any Median irruptions ; on the contrary, they repre sent the Median chiefs as giving tribute to Eser hadden (Rawlinson's Herodot., i. 405, 4oS).
Ctesias, as quoted by Diodorus Siculus (ii. 32), assigns to the Median monarchy a still older date than Herodotus. He gives a list of eight kings who ruled before Astyages, for an aggregate period of 282 years, which would fix the establishment of the monarchy about B.C. 875. The names of the kings are different from those of Herodotus ; and it is vain to attempt to reconcile the narratives (see, however, Hales' Analysis of Chronology, iii. 84 ; Heeren, Manual of Ancient Hut.) Rawlinson has clearly shown that Ctesias' narrative is fabu lous (Herodot., i. 406).
The Median Empire. — From the foregoing notices, we may conclude that the Medes migrated from beyond the Indus to the country on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea not later than the 9th century B.C. ; that they settled there as a
number of distinct tribes (probably six, as Hero dotus states, /. c.), and so remained during a period of three or four centuries ; that some Scythian tribes either occupied the country with them or invaded it at a later date ; and that (about B.C. 633) Cyaxeres rose suddenly to power, united the Medes under his sway, drove out the Scythians, and established the monarchy. Before this time the Medes are only once mentioned in Scripture, and then, as has been seen, their country was sub ject to Assyria (2 Kings xvii. 6).
A few years after the establishment of his empire, Cyaxeres made a league with the Baby lonian monarch, and invaded Assyria. Nineveh was captured and destroyed, B.C. 625. The inci dents of the siege and capture, as related by Dio dorus Siculus (ii. 27, 28 ; Nahum i. 8 ; ii. 5, 6 ; iii. 13, 14), contain a remarkable fulfilment of the prophecies uttered by Nahum nearly a century previously ; and recent excavations by Layard illustrate both (Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 71, 103, etc. See art. NINEVEH). The Assyrian monarchy was then overthrown (Rawlinson, Ancient Jllonar thser, H. 521).
Geography of Media.--The extent and boun daries of the kingdom of Media as first established by Cyaxeres cannot now be accurately determined. The country appears to have been divided from the earliest times into two provinces — (t.) Upper Media, afterwards called Atropatene, from Atro pates, the Persian satrap who gained its independ ence in the time of Alexander the Great (Arrian, Exped. iii. 8 ; vi. 29 ; Strabo, xi. p. 523). It was bounded on the north by the river Cyrus ; on the east by the Caspian Sea ; and on the west by Armenia. It thus embraced the lake and fer tile plain of Urumiah, the Spauta of Strabo (/.c.) The greater part of it is mountainous, and towards the north the mountain-ranges are wild, bleak, and barren, but are intersected by spacious upland plains and fertile valleys, which produce abund ance of grain where cultivated. The cold during winter is intense. The people lived principally on fruits and game. Its chief city was Ecbatana, which, according to Sir H. Rawlinson, was the ancient capital of the Medes to which Herodotus refers. It was situated in a plain encompassed by mountains, south-east of Urumiah, and has been identified with the modem Takht-i-Suleiman (Raw linson, in yourn. of R. G. S., vol. x. pt. r). It is supposed to have been the Canzaca of the Byzan tine historians (Procopius, Bell. Pers., ii.), and the Gazaca of Ammianus (ii. 84 ; cf. Strabo, xi., p. 523 ; Ptolemy vi. 18), which is frequently mentioned by classic historians as the capital of Atropatene. The mountains of this province are connected with the ranges of Zagros and Taurus. The modern pro vince of Azerbijan corresponds pretty nearly in extent to Atropatene. The present capital is Tabriz, which is a summer residence of the kings of Persia.
(2.) Lower Media, or Media Magna, lay to the south of the former. It was bounded on the west by the Zagros mountains, which separated it from Assyria and Babylonia ; on the south by Susiana and Persia ; and on the east by the Great Salt Desert and the Caspian Gates, beyond which lay Parthia (Strabo, 1. c. ; Pliny, vi. 14). This pro vince consists of a number of high plains, varying from 2000 to 400o feet above the sea, and long rich valleys winding through the adjoining moun tain-chains. The country in general is fertile, the air cool, water abundant, and pasture luxuriant. It was famous for its breed of horses, called Nisaean, from a plain in which they were chiefly reared (Herod. vii. 4o ; Ammian. Mar. xxiii. 6 ; Strabo, xi., p. 524). Media Magna compre hended the modem provinces of Irak Ajem and Ardelan, with part of Kurdistan. Its capital was Ecbatana ('Ercpcirava ; but more properly 'A-ygd Tapa), situated in a plain twelve stadia from Mount Orontes. It war a city of great strength and beauty, though the extravagant descriptions given of it by Herodotus and some other ancient writers are to a large extent fabulous [see ACHMETHA]. It has been satisfactorily identified with the modern Hamaddn.