Cyaxares and the Median Kingdom: Iran Before the Persians

Cyaxares was king of the Medes, an Iranian people of the western Iranian plateau, who reigned from about 625 to 585 BC. From his capital at Ecbatana he built a powerful army, allied with Nabopolassar of Babylon and played a decisive part in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. His kingdom shaped the world that Cyrus the Great and the Persians would later inherit.

The Medes before Cyaxares

The Medes first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC as groups of chiefs in the Zagros Mountains, often raided by Assyrian armies for horses and tribute. They were divided among many small rulers, each with a fortified settlement.

According to Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, the Median kingdom was founded by Deioces, who built Ecbatana, and was expanded by his son Phraortes. Herodotus says Phraortes died fighting the Assyrians and that Cyaxares, his son, succeeded him. These early stages cannot be confirmed from contemporary sources.

Building Median power

Herodotus credits Cyaxares with reorganising the army by separating spearmen, archers and cavalry into distinct units, where before they had fought mixed together. Mounted archers from the Iranian plateau became a formidable force.

Herodotus also describes a period of Scythian domination, during which nomadic Scythians from the north ruled Media for 28 years until Cyaxares invited their leaders to a banquet, made them drunk and killed them. Historians debate how much of this story is true and how it fits into the chronology.

Destroying Assyria

Contemporary evidence for Cyaxares comes mainly from the Babylonian Chronicles, which call him Umakishtar, king of the Umman-manda, an old Babylonian term for northern invaders. In 614 BC his forces captured and sacked Assur, the ancient religious capital of Assyria. The Babylonian king Nabopolassar arrived after the city fell, and the two rulers made an alliance there.

In 612 BC Medes and Babylonians besieged Nineveh, which fell after about three months, as described in Fall of Nineveh. The Medes then took part in the capture of Harran in 610 BC, ending the last Assyrian resistance. The alliance was sealed by a marriage: according to the Babylonian writer Berossus, Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar married a Median princess named Amytis.

After Assyria’s fall, the Medes appear to have controlled the highlands of northern Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia, while Babylon took the river lands and the Levant, as described in Nabopolassar and the Rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

War with Lydia

Pushing west into Anatolia, the Medes came into conflict with Lydia, ruled by King Alyattes. Herodotus says the war lasted five years. In its sixth year, during a battle, day suddenly turned to night, an event identified with the total solar eclipse of 28 May 585 BC.

Both sides stopped fighting, and peace was arranged with the help of the king of Cilicia and a Babylonian ruler Herodotus calls Labynetus. The Halys River (the modern Kızılırmak) became the border, and Alyattes’ daughter Aryenis married Cyaxares’ son Astyages. The episode is covered in Battle of the Eclipse.

Ecbatana, the Median capital

Ecbatana, called Hagmatana in Old Persian, lay on the main route between Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau, at the foot of Mount Alvand. Its position made it a natural centre for controlling trade and troop movements across the Zagros.

Herodotus describes a royal fortress ringed by seven walls, each painted a different colour, with the innermost two plated in silver and gold. The description is usually regarded as legendary or symbolic. Later, under the Persian kings, Ecbatana served as a summer capital, and it remained an important city under the Seleucids and Parthians. The ancient mound, Tepe Hegmataneh, lies in the centre of modern Hamadan and has been excavated by Iranian archaeologists since the 1980s.

Key people

• Cyaxares (Old Persian Uvakhshtra): king of the Medes and ally of Babylon.
• Nabopolassar: founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and Cyaxares’ partner against Assyria.
• Alyattes: king of Lydia, Cyaxares’ opponent in Anatolia.
• Astyages: son and successor of Cyaxares, the last Median king.

Debates about the Median kingdom

Unlike Assyria and Babylon, the Medes left almost no written records of their own, and no Median royal inscription has been found. Excavations at Hamadan have so far revealed mainly later remains, and Median-period sites such as Godin Tepe, Nush-i Jan and Baba Jan show fortified buildings but little sign of a large imperial administration.

For this reason many historians now see the Median state as a powerful coalition of chiefdoms under a leading king rather than an empire in the full sense. Others argue that the scale of Median military success implies real central organisation. The question remains open.

Timeline

• 9th century BC: Medes first appear in Assyrian records.
• c. 625 BC: Cyaxares becomes king, according to Herodotus’s chronology.
• 614 BC: Medes capture Assur; Cyaxares and Nabopolassar form an alliance.
• 612 BC: Medes and Babylonians sack Nineveh.
• 610 BC: Harran, the last Assyrian stronghold, falls.
• 585 BC, 28 May: Solar eclipse ends a battle between Medes and Lydians; peace follows.
• c. 585 BC: Cyaxares dies and is succeeded by Astyages.
• c. 550 BC: Cyrus the Great overthrows Astyages.

Why it matters

Cyaxares turned the Medes into one of the great powers of the Near East and, with Babylon, brought down Assyria. The Median kingdom he left behind passed to the Persians under Cyrus, and Median customs, titles and soldiers became part of the Persian Empire.