On May 28, 585 BC, during the Battle of Halys fought against Cyaxares, king of Media, a solar eclipse took place ( see also Thales ); hostilities were suspended, peace concluded, and the Halys fixed as the boundary between the two kingdoms.

Naboplassar of Babylon joined forces with Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and laid siege for three months.

The stalemate ended in 616 BC, when Nabopolassar entered into alliance with Cyaxares, king of the Medes and Persians, ( who had also taken advantage of the anarchy in Assyria to free his peoples from the Assyrian yoke ) and also the Scythians and Cimmerians.

According to Berossus, some years before he became king of Babylon, he married Amytis of Media, the daughter or granddaughter of Cyaxares the Great, king of the Medes, and thus the Median and Babylonian dynasties were united.

Cyaxares the Great or Hvakhshathra ( Uvaxštra, ; r. 625 – 585 BC ), the son of King Phraortes, was the first king of Media.

According to Herodotus, Cyaxares, grandson of Deioces, had a far greater military reputation than his father or grandfather, therefore he is often being described as the first official Median king.

This alliance was formalized through the marriage of Cyaxares daughter, Amytis with Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II, the king who constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as a present for his Median wife to help with her homesickness for the mountainous country of her birth.

Another Arpachshad is referenced in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith as being the " king of the Medes " contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar II, but this is thought to be a corruption of the historical name Cyaxares ( Hvakhshathra ).

Astyages ( spelled by Herodotus as Ἀστυάγης-Astyages ; by Ctesias as Astyigas ; by Diodorus as Aspadas ; Akkadian: Ištumegu, was the last king of the Median Empire, r. 585 BCE-550 BCE, the son of Cyaxares ; he was dethroned in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great.

According to the Book of Daniel, Darius the Mede began ruling when he was 62 years old ,< sup ></ sup > appointed 120 satraps to govern over provinces or districts ,< sup ></ sup > was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans ,< sup ></ sup > and pre-dated Cyrus .< sup ></ sup > What is little known of Cyaxares II, from extra-Biblical sources, matches the above mentioned descriptions offered in the Book of Daniel.

The Median Cyaxares had also recently taken advantage of the anarchy in the Assyrian Empire to free the Iranic peoples, the Medes and Persians, from Assyrian rule.

* 585 / 584 BC — Astyages succeeds Cyaxares as King of the Medes.

The empire fell in 608 BCE with the death of Ashur-uballit II after a period of internal strife followed by an attack by a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Scythians, Persians and Cimmerians led by Nabopolassar, the Chaldean ruler of Babylon and Cyaxares of Media / Persia.

The Medes under Cyaxares invaded Assyria later on in 612 BC, and then took over the Urartian capital of Van towards 585 BC, effectively ending the sovereignty of Urartu.

They were both opposed by an alliance led by Cyaxares of the Medes ( 633 – 584 BC ) and Nabopolassar of Babylon ( 626 – 605 BC ).

:" A horde of the nomad Scythians at feud with the rest withdrew and sought refuge in the land of the Medes: and at this time the ruler of the Medes was Cyaxares the son of Phraortes, the son of Deïokes, who at first dealt well with these Scythians, being suppliants for his protection ; and esteeming them very highly he delivered boys to them to learn their speech and the art of shooting with the bow.

: After this, since Alyattes would not give up the Scythians when Cyaxares demanded them, there had arisen war between the Lydians and the Medes lasting five years ; in which years the Medes often discomfited the Lydians and the Lydians often discomfited the Medes ( and among others they fought also a battle by night ): and as they still carried on the war with equally balanced fortune, in the sixth year a battle took Halys riverplace in which it happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became night.

The Lebor Gabála Érenn synchronises his reign with those of Phraortes ( 665-633 BC ) and Cyaxares ( 625-585 ) of the Medes.

The Lebor Gabála synchronises his reign with that of Cyaxares of the Medes ( 625-585 BC ).

The Lebor Gabála Érenn synchronises his reign with those of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon ( 605-562 ), Cambyses II of Persia ( died 522 BC ), and Cyaxares of the Medes ( 625-585 ).

The Median Empire during both Cyaxares | Cyaxares the Great, and Astyages Astyages succeeded his father in 585 BCE, following the Battle of Halys, which ended a five-year war between the Lydians and the Medes.

Based on the view that the Ahasuerus of the Book of Tobit is identical with that of the Book of Esther, some have also identified him as Nebuchadnezzar's ally Cyaxares ( ruled 625 – 585 BCE ).

The view that it was Mordecai would be consistent with the identification of Ahasuerus with Cyaxares.

Therefore, many scholars identify him with Cyaxares II rather than Darius I of Persia.

He is alternatively identified, together with the Ahasuerus of the Book of Tobit, as Cyaxares I, said to be the father of Astyages.

Cyaxares reorganized and modernized the Median Army, then joined with King Nabopolassar of Babylonia.

Then time went by, and the Scythians used to go out continually to the chase and always brought back something ; till once it happened that they took nothing, and when they returned with empty hands Cyaxares ( being, as he showed on this occasion, not of an eminently good disposition ) dealt with them very harshly and used insult towards them.

This then was done ; and Cyaxares with the guests who ate at his table tasted of that meat, and the Scythians having so done became suppliants for the protection of Alyattes.

Harran was besieged and conquered by Nabopolassar and Cyaxares in 610 BC.

However the names are distinct in the text and refer to two different individuals, the one called Gubaru being the ruler placed over Babylon thus corresponding to Cyaxares of the Cyropedia ( and the Darius the Mede of the Bible ) not Gobryas.

In certain manuscripts of Tobit, the former is called Achiachar, which, like the Greek Cyaxares, is thought to be derived from Persian Akhuwakhshatra.

* 585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce.

* 28 May 585 BC — A solar eclipse occurs as predicted by Thales, while Alyattes II is battling Cyaxares.

Josephus names Astyages as the father of Darius the Mede, and the description of the latter as uncle and father-in-law of Cyrus by mediaeval Jewish commentators matches that of Cyaxares II, who is said to be the son of Astyages by Xenophon.

" Another view notes that on the Behistun Inscription, " Cyaxares " is a family name, and thus considers the description as literal, viewing Astyages as an intermediate ruler wrongly placed in the family line in the Greek sources.

Western scholars have proposed that Achiachar is a variant form of the name " Cyaxares I of Media ", who historically did destroy Nineveh, in 612 BC.

His wife was reportedly a granddaughter to both Cyaxares of Media and Alyattes II of Lydia.

He established a strict protocol of seclusion and deference as well as a nationwide network of spies, administered justice, and ruled for fifty-three years ; his son and successor was Phraortes, father of Cyaxares, who overthrew the Assyrian Empire and established the power of Media.

The official Kurdish anthem, Ey Reqîb, mentions Cyaxares as being an ancestor of the Kurdish people.

In around 627 BC after the death of its last great king Ashurbanipal, the Neo-Assyrian empire began to unravel due to a series of bitter civil wars, and Assyria was attacked by its former vassals, the Babylonians and Medes.

According to 2 Kings and Josephus the people of Israel were removed by the king of the Assyrians ( Sargon II ) to Halah, to Gozan on the Khabur River and to the towns of the Medes.

It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus ( 549 BC ) that Cyrus, the Achaemenid Persian " king of Anshan " in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, " king of the Manda " or Medes, at Ecbatana.

He told Otto, in the presence of the pope, that Prester John, a Nestorian Christian who served in the dual position of priest and king, had regained the city of Ecbatana from the brother monarchs of Medes and Persia, the Samiardi, in a great battle " not many years ago ".

Whether or not he survived the siege and sack of Nineveh by Chaldeans and Medes, Assyria was soon reduced to a rump state centered around its last capital city of Harran under its last king Ashur-uballit II and then destroyed by the Babylonians.

Deioces, Diako, Deyaco, Diyako or Deiokes ( Greek Δηιόκης ) was the first king of the Medes according to Herodotus.

His uncle Arsames, who had been the king of the city-state of Parsa under the Medes, therefore would have had to give up his throne.

The territory Tanausis had conquered in Asia was then bestowed upon his close friend Sornus, king of the Medes.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were a previously unconfirmed legend about a beautiful man-made mountain full of green plants and trees that reportedly were built by King Nebuchadnezzar ( ruled 605 BC-563 BC ) for his homesick wife, Amyitis, who was daughter of the king of the Medes.

Instead of treating the Medes as a beaten foe and a subject nation, he had himself installed as king of Media and governed Media and Persia as a dual monarchy, each part of which enjoyed equal rights.

* The generals of Astyages, the last king of the Medes, mutinied at Pasargadae and the empire surrendered to the Persian Empire, which conquered Babylon in 539 BC under Cyrus the Great.

First subjected by the Assyrians, if we believe to Diodorus ' doubtful sources, they were then brought in at least nominal subjection to the Medes, till they rebelled at the time of the king of the Medes Artaeus.

He also was of the race of the Medes, being the man whom the Median king, Astyages, feasted at the unholy banquet, and who lent his aid to place Cyrus upon the throne ..."

" Furthermore, kings commonly took dual titles and Nabonidus, Cyrus ' cousin, referred to Cyrus as " the king of the Medes.