The country of the Medes, in its original extent, coincided
very nearly with the northwestern part of modern Persia,
between Farsistan and the Elburz mountains. "The boundaries of
Media are given somewhat differently by different writers, and
no doubt they actually varied at different periods; but the
variations were not great, and the natural limits, on three
sides at any rate, may be laid down with tolerable precision.
Towards the north the boundary was at first the mountain chain
closing in on that side the Urumiyeh basin, after which it seems
to have been held that the true limit was the Araxes, to its
entrance on the low country, and then the mountain chain west
and south of the Caspian. Westward, the line of demarcation
may be best regarded as, towards the south, running along the
centre of the Zagros region; and, above this, as formed by
that continuation of the Zagros chain which separates the
Urumiyeh from the Van basin. Eastward, the boundary was marked
by the spur from the Elburz, across which lay the pass known
as the Pylæ Caspiæ, and below this by the great salt desert,
whose western limit is nearly in the same longitude. Towards
the south there was no marked line or natural boundary. … We
may place the southern limit with much probability about the
line of the thirty-second parallel, which is nearly the
present boundary between Irak and Fars."
_G. Rawlinson,
Five great Monarchies: Media,
chapter 1._
"The nation of the Medes belongs to the group of the Arian
tribes, which occupied the table-land of Iran. This has been
already proved by the statement of Herodotus that in ancient
times the Medians were called Areans by all men, by the
religion of the Medes, and by all the Median words and names
that have come down to us. According to Herodotus the nation
consisted of six tribes: the Arizanti, Busae, Struchates,
Budii, Paraetaceni, and Magi. … The Magians we have already
found to be a hereditary order of Priests."
_M. Duncker,
History of Antiquity,
book 8, chapter 1._
The Medes, who seem to have been long without any centralizing
authority among them, became, at last, united under a monarchy
which grew in power, until, in the later part of the seventh
century B. C., it combined with Babylonia against the decaying
Assyrian kingdom. Nineveh was destroyed by the confederates,
and the dominions of Assyria were divided between them. The
Median empire which then rose, by the side of the Babylonian,
endured little more than half a century. It was the first of
the conquests of Cyrus (see PERSIA: B. C. 549-521), or Kyros,
the founder of the Persian empire (B. C. 549).
_A. H. Sayce,
Ancient Empires of the East,
appendix 5._
ALSO IN:
_F. Lenormant and E. Chevallier,
Manual of the Ancient History of the East,
book 5, chapters 1-4._
MEDIA:
The ancient religion.
See ZOROASTRIANS.
----------MEDIA: End----------