He also neglected the rise of powerful new enemies, first the Medes, then the Persians under Cyrus the Great.

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.

The Greek historian Arrian mentions ( perhaps anachronistically ) the Caucasian Albanians for the first time in the battle of Gaugamela, where the Albanians, Medes, Cadussi and Sacae were under the command of Atropates.

Urfa was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Armenians, Hurri-Mitannis ( Armeno-Aryans ), Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Macedonians ( under Alexander the Great ), Seleucids, Arameans, Osrhoenes, Romans, Sassanids, Byzantines, and Crusaders.

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.

After the fall of Urartu ( 6th century BC ), most of the region south of the Kura river came under the domination of the Medes and Achaemenian Persians until 331 BC when Alexander the Great invaded the region, upsetting its balance of power.

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.

Antiochus ' army was composed of 5, 000 light armed Daae, Carmanians and Cilicians under Byttacus the Macedonian, 10, 000 Phalangites ( the Argyraspides or Silver Shields ) under Theodotus the Aetolian, the man who had betrayed Ptolemy and handed much of Coele Syria and Phoenicia over to Antiochus, 20, 000 Phalangites under Nicarchus and Theodotus Hemiolius, 2, 000 Persian and Agrianian archers and slingers with 2, 000 Thracians under Menedemus of Alabanda, 5, 000 Medes, Cissians, Cadusii and Carmanians under the Aspasianus the Mede, 10, 000 Arabians under Zabdibelus, 5, 000 Greek mercenaries under Hippolochus the Thessalian, 1, 500 Cretans under Eurylochus and 1, 000 Neocretans under Zelys the Gortynian, 500 Lydian javelineers and 1, 000 Cardakes under Lysimachus the Gaul.

* 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.

:" 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.

The Lebor Gabála synchronises the start of his reign with the reign of Deioces of the Medes ( 694 – 665 BC ), and his death with his successor Phraortes ( 665 – 633 BC ).

The Lebor Gabála Érenn synchronises his reign with that of Phraortes of the Medes ( 665-633 BC ).

The Lebor Gabála Érenn synchronises his reign with that of Phraortes of the Medes ( 665-633 BC ).

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

In 550 BCE Cyrus defeated the Medes, and had allied himself with the priests of Marduk, and the fall of Babylon to the Persians became a real possibility.

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.

The Medes, Persians, Chaldean ruled Babylonians, together with the Scythians and Cimmerians attacked Assyria in 616 BC, and by 612 BC, after five years of bitter fighting, the alliance had sacked Nineveh, killing Sin-shar-ishkun in the process.

Medus, Aegeus ' only other son ( by Medea of Colchis ), had been exiled in Asia and would become legendary ancestor to the Medes.

But the " upper Aorsi " from whom they had split as fugitives, could send many more, for they dominated the coastal region of the Caspian Sea: " and consequently they could import on camels the Indian and Babylonian merchandise, receiving it in their turn from the Armenians and the Medes, and also, owing to their wealth, could wear golden ornaments.

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.

Asia Minor had been partly conquered by the Iranians, starting with the Scythians, then the Medes.

This and the fact that the Persians and Medes to the east were growing in power now that the might of Assyria that had held them in vassalage for centuries was gone, spelt the death knell for native Mesopotamian power.

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 ".

The province of Kurdistan, formed by Sanjar, had as its capital the village Bahar ( which means " spring "), near ancient Ecbatana ( Hamadan ), capital of the Medes.

The Iranic Medes and Persians who had been largely subject to Assyria since their arrival in the region circa 1000 BC, took full advantage of the anarchy in Assyria, and in 616 BC freed themselves from Assyrian rule.

This is the current view for the majority of the Christian, Islamic and Jewish faiths, although according to Biblical accounts the Arab people traditionally have had long-standing alliances with the descendants of the Assyrians and the Medes.

According to the Miholjanec legend, Stephen V of Hungary had in front of his tent a golden plate with the inscription: " Attila, the son of Bendeuci, grandson of the great Nimrod, born at Engedi: By the Grace of God King of the Huns, Medes, Goths, Dacians, the horrors of the world and the scourge of God.

: 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 Lydians however and the Medes, when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them.

The tomb contains Zoroastrian symbols, since the Medes had an ancient religion ( a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping ) with a priesthood named as " Magi ".

In alliance with Egyptian forces, Ashuruballit's army was able to defend Harran from the combined Babylonian-Mede attack for a brief period following the destruction of Nineveh ; however, when the Egyptian army had to return their homeland in 610 BC, the Babylonians and Medes swept into Harran and sacked it in 609 BC.

Formerly, the Lydians and Medes had arranged that the natural boundary between the two empires would be the Halys River.

This tale might have been intended only to explain why Madai was the only son of Japheth whose descendants, the Medes, did not live in Anatolia, the islands near it, or the South Caucasus.

Since the 2nd millennium BC, the region now inhabited by the native Pashtun people have been influenced by Ancient Iranian peoples, the Medes, Achaemenids, Greeks, Mauryas, Kushans, Hephthalites, Sassanids, Arab Muslims, Turks, and others.

The original homeland of the Kassites is not well known, but appears to have been located in the Zagros Mountains in Lorestan in what is now modern Iran, although, like the Elamites, Gutians and Manneans, they were unrelated to the later Indo-European / Iranic Medes and Persians who came to dominate the region a thousand years later .< ref >

1 Enoch tells how God stirs up the Medes and Parthians ( instead of Gog and Magog ) to attack Jerusalem, where they are destroyed ; an indebtedness to Ezekiel 38-39 has also been asserted.

He seems to have been recognized by Medes, Babylonia and Egypt.

The upheavals in Assyria allowed the Medes to free themselves from Assyrian vassalage and make themselves the major power in ancient Iran at the expense of the Persians, Manneans and the remnants of the indigenous Elamites whose kingdom had been destroyed by the Assyrians.

Christian apologists state that the prophecy in Isaiah chapters 13 and 21 could possibly have been directed originally against Assyria whose capital Nineveh was defeated in 612 BC by a combined onslaught of the Medes and Babylonians.

: And long-haired Medes, who knew it all too well.

In the 550s BC the Persians revolted against the Medes and gained control of their empire, and over the next few decades annexed to it the realms of Lydia in Anatolia, Damascus, Babylonia, and Egypt, as well as consolidating their control over the Iranian plateau nearly as far as India.

The right wing was held by a thousand Medes and two thousand horsemen with Rheomithres as well as Bactrians of like number.