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The Medes were an
Iranian people of
Indo-Iranian origin who lived in the western
and north-western portion of present-day
Iran.
By the
6th
century BC (prior to the
Persian invasion) the Medes were able to
establish an empire that stretched from
Aran
(the modern-day
Republic of Azerbaijan) to
Central Asia and
Afghanistan. Today's population of the
western part of the
Iranian Plateau (including many
Persian-speakers,
Kurds
and Azeris) consider themselves to be descended from the
ancient Medes.
Apart from a few personal names, the language of the
Medes is almost entirely unknown, but was undoubtedly
quite similar to the
Avestan and
Scythian languages.
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The Six Median Tribes
Herodotus
lists the names of six Mede tribes or castes. Some of
these are similar to tribal names of the Scythians,
suggesting a definitive link between these two groups.
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The
Busae group is thought to derive from the
Persian term buza meaning indigenous (i.e.
not Iranian). Whether this was based on an
originally Iranian term, or their own name, is
unknown.
-
The
second group is called the Paraetaceni, or
Parae-tak-(eni) in Persian, and denotes nomadic
inhabitants of the mountains of Paraetacene. This
name recalls the Scythian Para-la-ti, the
people of Kolaxis, believed to represent the common
people in general, but whom Herodotus calls the
"Royal Scythians".
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The third
group is called Strukhat.
-
The
fourth group is the Arizanti, whose name is
derived from the words
Arya (noble), and Zantu (tribe,
clan).
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The fifth
group were the Budii, found also among the
Black Sea Scythians as Budi-ni. Buddha was of the
tribe Budha, the
Saka (eastern Scythian) form of the name.
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The sixth
tribe were the
Magi, who were actually of
Mesopotamian (non-Aryan) origin. They were a
hereditary caste of priests of the
Zurvanism religion that evolved out of
Zoroastrianism. The name Magi implies a link
with the Sumerians, who called their language
Emegir, over time becoming simplified to Magi.
Hungarian tradition also traces pre-European Magyar
(Hungarian) ancestry back to the Magi. In time, the
Sumerian-influenced religion of the Magi was
suppressed in favour of a more purely Iranian form
of Zoroastrianism, itself evolved from its somewhat
dualist beginnings into the monotheistic faith that
it is today (also known as
Parsi-ism).
Herotodus also mentions that
"the Medes had exactly the same equipment as the
Persians; and indeed the dress common to both is not so
much Persian as Median."
Early historical references to Medes
The origin and history of the Medes is quite obscure, as
we possess almost no contemporary information, and not a
single monument or inscription from Media itself. The
story that
Ctesias gave (a list of nine kings, beginning
with Arbaces, who is said to have destroyed Nineveh
about 880 BC, preserved in Diod. ii. 32 sqq. and copied
by many later authors) has no historical value whatever;
though some of his names may be derived from local
traditions.
Josephus relates the Medes (OT Heb. Madai) to
the biblical character,
Madai,
son of
Japheth. "Now as to
Javan
and
Madai,
the sons of Japhet; from Madai came the Madeans, who are
called Medes, by the Greeks" Antiquities of the Jews,
I:6.
Other ancient historians including
Strabo,
Ptolemy,
Herodotus,
Polybius, and
Pliny,
mention names such as Mantiane, Martiane,
Matiane, Matiene, to designate the
northern part of Media.
We can see how the Iranian element gradually became
dominant; princes with Iranian names occasionally occur
as rulers of other tribes. But the Gelae, Tapuri,
Cadusii, Amardi, Utii and other tribes in northern Media
and on the shores of the Caspian may not have been
Iranian stock. Polybius (V. 44, 9), Strabo (xi. 507,
508, 514), and Pliny (vi. 46), considered the
Anariaci to be among these tribes; but their name,
meaning the "not-Arians", is probably a comprehensive
designation for a number of smaller indigenous tribes.
The Medes, people of the Mada, (the Greek form "Μηδοί"
is Ionian for Madoi), appear in history first in
836 BC.
Earliest records show that
Assyrian conqueror
Shalmaneser II received tribute from the "Amadai"
in connection with wars against the tribes of the
Zagros.
His successors undertook many expeditions against the
Medes (Madai).
At this early stage, the Medes were usually mentioned
together with another steppe tribe, the Scythians, who
seem to have been the dominant group. They were divided
into many districts and towns, under petty local
chieftains; from the names in the Assyrian inscriptions,
it appears they had already adopted the
religion of
Zoroaster.
An Assyrian military report from
800 BC
lists 28 names of Mede chiefs, but only one of these is
positively identified as Iranian. A second report from
c. 700 BC lists 26 names; of these, 5 seem to be
Iranian, the others are not.
Sargon
in
715 BC
and
713 BC
subjected them up to "the far mountain Bikni," i.e. the
Elbruz
(Damavand)
and the borders of the desert. If the account of
Herodotus may be trusted, the Medes' dynasty derived its
origin from
Deioces (Daiukku), a Mede chieftain in
the
Zagros,
who was, along with his kinsmen, transported by Sargon
to Hamath (Haniah) in
Syria
in
715 BC.
This Daiukku seems to have originally been a governor of
Mannae
subject to Sargon, prior to his exile.
In spite of repeated rebellions by the early chieftains
against the Assyrian yoke, the Medes paid tribute to
Assyria under Sargon's successors,
Sennacherib,
Esarhaddon and
Assur-bani-pal, whenever these kings marched
in with their fierce armies. Assyrian forts located in
Median territory (Zagros Mtns) at the time of
Esarhaddon's campaign (ca. 676) included Bit-Parnakki,
Bit-kari and Harhar (Kar-Sharrukin).
The Empire of the Medes
In the second half of the
7th
century BC, the Medes gained their
independence and were united by a dynasty. The kings who
established the Mede Empire are generally recognized to
be
Phraortes and his son
Cyaxares. They were probably chieftains of a
nomadic Mede tribe in the desert and on the south shore
of the Caspian, the Manda, mentioned by Sargon,
and they likely founded the capital at
Ecbatana. The later Babylonian king
Nabonidus also designated the Medes and their
kings always as Manda.
According to Herodotus, the conquests of Cyaxares the
Mede were preceded by a Scythian invasion and domination
lasting twenty-eight years (under Madius the Scythian,
653-625 BC). The Mede tribes seem to have come into
immediate conflict with a settled state to the West
known as
Mannae,
allied with Assyria. Assyrian inscriptions state that
the early Mede rulers, who had attempted rebellions
against the Assyrians in the time of Esarhaddon and
Assur-bani-pal, were allied with chieftains of the
Ashguza (Scythians) and other tribes - who had come
from the northern shore of the Black Sea and invaded
Armenia and
Asia
Minor; and Jeremiah and Zephaniah
in the Old Testament also agree with Herodotus that a
massive invasion of
Syria
and
Palestine by northern barbarians took place
in
626 BC.
The state of Mannae was finally conquered and
assimilated by the Medes in the year 616 BC.
In 612, Cyaxares conquered
Urartu,
and with the help of
Nabopolassar the Chaldean, succeeded in
destroying the Assyrian capital,
Nineveh; by 606, the remaining vestiges of
Assyrian control. From then on, the Mede king ruled over
much of Iran, Assyria and northern Mesopotamia, Armenia
and
Cappadocia. His power was very dangerous to
his neighbors, and the exiled
Jews
expected the destruction of
Babylonia by the Medes (Isaiah 13, 14m 21;
Jerem. 1, 51.).
When Cyaxares attacked
Lydia,
the kings of
Cilicia and
Babylon intervened and negotiated a peace in
585 BC,
whereby the
Halys
was established as the Medes' frontier with Lydia.
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon married a daughter
of Cyaxares, and an equilibrium of the great powers was
maintained until the rise of the Persians under
Cyrus.
About the internal organization of the Mede Empire, we
know that the Greeks adopted many ceremonial elements of
the Persian court, the costume of the king, etc.,
through Media.
Subjection to the Persians
In
553 BC
Cyrus, king of Persia, rebelled against his suzerain,
the Mede King
Astyages, son of Cyaxares; he finally won a
decisive victory in
550 BC
resulting in Astyages' capture by his own dissatisfied
nobles, who promptly turned him over to the triumphant
Cyrus. Thus were the Medes subjected to their close kin,
the Persians. In the new empire they retained a
prominent position; in honor and war, they stood next to
the Persians; their court ceremony was adopted by the
new sovereigns, who in the summer months resided in
Ecbatana; and many noble Medes were employed as
officials,
satraps and generals. After the assassination
of the usurper Smerdis, a Mede Fravartish (Phraortes),
claiming to be a scion of Cyaxares, tried to restore the
Mede kingdom, but was defeated by the Persian generals
and executed in Ecbatana (Darius in the Behistun inscr.).
Another rebellion, in 409, against
Darius
II (Xenophon, Hellen. ~. 2, 19) was of short
duration. But the non-Aryan tribes to the north,
especially the Cadusii, were always troublesome; many
abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are
mentioned.
Under Persian rule, the country was divided into two
satrapies: the south, with Ecbatana and Rhagae (Rai),
Media proper, or Greater Media, as it is often called,
formed in Darius' organization the eleventh satrapy
(Herodotus iii. 92), together with the Paricanians and
Orthocorybantians; the north, the district of Matiane
(see above), together with the mountainous districts of
the Zagros and Assyria proper (east of the Tigris) was
united with the Alarodians and Saspirians in eastern
Armenia, and formed the eighteenth satrapy (Herod. iii.
94; cf. v. 49, 52, VII. 72).
When the Persian empire decayed and the Cadusii and
other mountainous tribes made themselves independent,
eastern Armenia became a special satrapy, while Assyria
seems to have been united with Media; therefore
Xenophon in the Anabasis always
designates Assyria by the name of "Media".
Media and Hellenistic Greece
Alexander occupied Media in the summer of
330 BC.
In 328 he appointed as satrap a former general of
Darius called Atropates (Atrupat), whose daughter was
married to Perdiccas in 324, according to Arrian. In the
partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the
Macedonian Peithon; but the north, far off and of little
importance to the generals squabbling over Alexander's
inheritance, was left to Atropates.
While southern Media, with Ecbatana, passed to the rule
of Antigonus, and afterwards (about 310) to Seleucus I,
Atropates maintained himself in his own satrapy and
succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the
partition of the country, that Persia had introduced,
became lasting; the north was named Atropatene (in
Pliny, Atrapatene; in Ptolemy, Tropatene),
after the founder of the dynasty, a name still said to
be preserved in the modern
Azerbaijan.
The capital of Atropatene was Gazaca in the central
plain, and the castle
Phraaspa, discovered on the Araz river by
archaeologists in April 2005. The kings had a strong and
warlike army, especially cavalry (Polyb. v. 55; Strabo
xi. 253). Nevertheless,
King
Artabazanes was forced by
Antiochus the Great in
220 BC
to conclude a disadvantageous treaty (Polyb. v. 55), and
in later times, the rulers became dependent in turn upon
the Parthians, upon Tigranes of Armenia, and in the time
of
Pompey
who defeated their king Darius (Appian, Mithr. 108),
upon Antonius (who invaded Atropatene) and upon Augustus
of Rome. In the time of Strabo (AD
17),
the dynasty still existed; later, the country seems to
have become a Parthian province.
Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was
least of all other countries influenced by
Hellenism; there exists not even a single
coin of its rulers. But the opinion of modern authors
that it had been a special refuge of Zoroastrianism, is
partly based on a folk etymology of the name (explained
as "country of fire-worship"), partly on Zoroastrian
traditions, including traditions regarding the
birthplace of Zoroaster, and partly because of the
natural phenomenon of flames escaping from rock
fissures, occurring throughout the former territory of
Atropatene. There can be no doubt that the kings adhered
to the Persian religion; though it may not have been
deeply rooted among their subjects, especially among the
non-Aryan tribes.
Southern Media remained a province of the
Seleucid Empire for a century and a half, and
Hellenism was introduced everywhere. Media was
surrounded everywhere by Greek towns, in pursuance of
Alexander's plan to protect it from neighboring
barbarians, according to
Polybius (x. 27). Only Ecbatana retained its
old character. But Rhagae became the Greek town
Europus; and with it
Strabo
(xi. 524) names Laodicea, Apamea Heraclea or Achais.
Most of them were founded by Seleucus I and his son
Antiochus I.
In 221, the satrap Molon tried to make himself
independent (there exist bronze coins with his name and
the royal title), together with his brother Alexander,
satrap of Persis, but they were defeated and killed by
Antiochus the Great. In the same way, the Mede satrap
Timarchus took the diadem and conquered Babylonia; on
his coins he calls himself the great king Timarchus; but
again the legitimate king, Demetrius I, succeeded in
subduing the rebellion, and Timarchus was slain. But
with Demetrius I, the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire
began, brought about chiefly by the intrigues of the
Romans, and shortly afterwards, in about 150, the
Parthian king Mithradates I conquered Media (Justin xli.
6).
From this time Media remained subject to the
Arsacids or Parthians, who changed the name
of Rhagae, or Europus, into Arsacia (Strabo xi.
524), and divided the country into five small provinces
(Isidorus Charac.). From the Parthians, it passed in AD
226
to the Sassanids, together with Atropatene.
By this time the older tribes of Aryan Iran had lost
their distinct character and had been amalgamated into
one people, the Iranians. The revival of Zoroastrianism,
enforced everywhere by the Sassanids, completed this
development. It was then that Atropatene became a
principal seat of fire-worship, with many fire-altars.
Arsacia (Rhagae) now became the most sacred city of the
empire and the seat of the head of the Zoroastrian
hierarchy; the Sassanid Avesta and the tradition of the
Parsees therefore consider Rhagae as the home of the
family of the Prophet Zoroaster.
Magus
A Magus (plural Magi, from Latin, via
Greek
μάγος from
Old
Persian maguš) was a
Zoroastrian
astrologer-priest
from ancient
Persia,
from which is derived the terms
magic,
magician, and also referred to as a
sorcerer or
wizard.
The English term may also refer to a
shaman.
The best known Magi are the
Wise
Men from the East in the Bible.
The Greek word is attested
from the
5th
century BC as a direct loan from
Old
Persian maguš. The Persian word is a
u-stem adjective from an
Indo-Iranian root *magh "powerful,
rich" also continued in
Sanskrit magha "gift, wealth",
magha-vant "generous" (a name of
Indra).
Avestan has maga, magauuan,
probably with the meanings "sacrifice" and "sacrificer".
The
Indo-European root appears to have expressed
power or ability, continued e.g. in
Greek
mekhos (see
mechanics) and in
Germanic magan (English may),
magts (English might, the expression
"might and magic" thus being a figura etymologica).
The original significance of the name for the Median
priests thus seems to have been "the powerful".
Modern
Persian Mobed is derived from an
Old
Persian compound magu-pati "lord
priest".
The plural Magi entered
the English language in ca.
1200,
referring to the Magi mentioned in Matthew 2:1, the
singular being attested only considerably later, in the
late
14th
century, when it was loaned from
Old
French in the meaning magician
together with magic.
In
Persian, Magi is meguceen, meaning "Fire
Worshipper." Its the origin of the word magician.
The term
mag, may also come from the Hebrew magdal,
meaning "tower." The Magi would then be the "men of the
tower" or "towers." The towers refer to the pyramids of
Egypt. In the Nativity story, the Magi were said to have
come from Egypt.
Magi in the history of the
Persian Empire
According to
Herodotus, the Magi were the sacred
caste
of the
Medes.
They organized Persian society after the fall of
Assyria and
Babylon. Their power was curtailed by
Cyrus,
the founder of the
Persian Empire, and by his son
Cambyses II; the Magi revolted against
Cambyses and set up a rival claimant to the throne, one
of their own, who took the name of
Smerdis. Smerdis and his forces were defeated
by the Persians under
Darius
I. The sect of the Magi continued in Persia,
though its influence was limited after this political
setback.
During the Classical era (555
BCE - 300 CE), some Magi migrated westward, settling in
Greece, and then Italy. For more than a century,
Mithraism, a religion derived from Persia,
was the largest single religion in Rome. The Magi were
likely involved in its practice.
The
Book
of Jeremiah (39:3, 39:13) gives a title
rab mag "chief magus" to the head of the Magi,
Nergal
Sharezar (Septuagint,
Vulgate and
KJV
mistranslate Rabmag as a separate character).
After invading Arabs succeeded
in taking
Ctesiphon in 637, Islam replaced
Zoroastrianism, and the power of the Magi faded.
Greek use of magos
While in
Herodotus, magos refers to either a
member of the tribe of the
Medes
(1.101), or to one of the Persian priests who could
interpret dreams (7.37), it could also be used for any
enchanter or wizard, and especially to charlatans or
quacks (see also
goetia), especially by philosophers such as
Heraclitus who took a skeptical view of the
art of an enchanter, and in comic literature (Lucian's
Lucios
or the Ass). The use of magoi in
Matthew 2:1 of course is that of Hdt 7.37.
In Hellenism, magos
started to be used as an adjective, meaning "magical",
as in magas techne "ars magica" (e.g. used by
Philostratus).
Fictional magi
Mage,
rather than magus, is the spelling usually
encountered for
magic-user characters in
role-playing games and
fantasy
fiction. An exception is the game
Ars
Magica, where the main characters are known
as magi.
Many references to the three magi can be found in
various games and shows. For example, in the
Neon
Genesis Evangelion
anime/manga
series, a
supercomputer (called "MAGI") is divided in
three distinct parts, all of which are named after the
Magi.
In the video game
Chrono
Trigger, the three Gurus, of
Life,
Time,
and
Reason,
are also named after the Magi and, through the course of
the game, give key items to the player. Furthermore, one
of the game's main characters is named
Magus,
and another
Cyrus.
Source: Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia