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Ecbatana
Ecbatana () was an ancient city, the capital of the Median kingdom, and the first capital in History of Iran, Iranian history. It later became the summer capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid and Parthian Empire, Parthian empires.Nardo, Don. "Ecbatana." ''The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesopotamia'', edited by Robert B. Kebric, Greenhaven Press, 2007, pp. 97-98. ''Gale In Context: World History'', link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3205100129/WHIC?u=wylrc_uwyoming&sid=summon&xid=e9682d3c. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022. It was also an important city during the Seleucid Empire, Seleucid and Sasanian Empire, Sasanian empires. It is believed that Ecbatana is located in the Zagros Mountains, the east of central Mesopotamia, on Hagmatana Hill (Tappe-ye Hagmatāna). Ecbatana's strategic location and resources probably made it a popular site even before the 1st millennium BC. Along with Athens in Greece, Rome in Italy and Susa in Iran, Ecbatana is one of the few ancient cities in the world th ...
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Median Kingdom
Media (Old Persian: ''Māda''; Ancient Greek, Greek: ''Mēdía''; Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''wikt:𐎶𐎠𐎭#Descendants, Mādāya'') was a political entity centered in Ecbatana that existed from the 7th century BCE until the mid-6th century BCE and is believed to have dominated a significant portion of the Iranian plateau, preceding the powerful Achaemenid Empire. The frequent interference of the Assyrians in the Zagros Mountains, Zagros region led to the process of unifying the Median tribes. By 612 BCE, the Medes became strong enough to overthrow the declining Assyrian empire in alliance with the Babylonians. However, contemporary scholarship tends to be skeptical about the existence of a united Median kingdom or state, at least for most of the 7th century BCE. According to classical historiography, Media emerged as one major power of the ancient Near East after the collapse of Assyria. Under Cyaxares (r. 625–585 BCE), the kingdom's borders were expanded to the east ...
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Deioces
Deioces was the founder and the first king of the Median Kingdom, an ancient polity in western Asia. His name has been mentioned in different forms in various sources, including the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. The exact date of the era of Deioces' rule is not clear and probably covered most of the first half of the 7th century BC. According to Herodotus, Deioces was the first Median king to have gained independence from the Neo-Assyrian Empire and governed for 53 years. After Deioces' death, his son, Phraortes, succeeded him. Etymology Deioces' name has been mentioned in various forms in different sources. The Greek historian Herodotus has stated his name as Δηϊόκης (''Dēiokēs''). In Assyrian texts, he has been mentioned as ''Da-a-a-uk-ku;'' and in Elamite ones, as ''Da-a-(hi-)(ú-)uk-ka'' and ''Da-a-ya-u(k)-ka.'' Deioces' name is derived from the Iranian ''Dahyu-ka,'' and is the junior noun of the word ''dahyu-,'' meaning "the land". The old Iranian name Deio ...
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Battle Of Ecbatana
The Battle of Ecbatana was fought in 129 BC between the Seleucids led by Antiochus VII Sidetes and the Parthians led by Phraates II, and marked the final attempt on the part of the Seleucids to regain their power in the east against the Parthians. After their defeat, the territory of the Seleucids was limited to the area of Syria. Battle Phraates II (ca. 139/138 BC – ca. 128 BC) faced the final attempt on the part of the Seleucids to regain their power in the east. The Seleucids amassed a large force of Greek mercenaries and led the army, totaling 80,000 soldiers, to confront the Parthians, initiating a campaign in 130 BC to retake Mesopotamia. The Parthian general Indates was defeated along the Great Zab, followed by a local uprising where the Parthian governor of Babylonia was killed. Antiochus conquered Babylonia and occupied Susa, where he minted coins, and advanced his army into Media.; ; After losing three successive battles, Phraates sent a delegation to negoti ...
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Medes
The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia in the vicinity of Ecbatana (present-day Hamadan). Their consolidation in Iran is believed to have occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains unknown. Although widely recognized as playing an important role in the history of the ancient Near East, the Medes left no written records to reconstruct their history. Knowledge of the Medes comes only from foreign sources such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Armenians and Ancient Greece, Greeks, as well as a few Iranian archaeological sites, which are believed to have been occu ...
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Hamadan
Hamadan ( ; , ) is a mountainous city in western Iran. It is located in the Central District of Hamadan County in Hamadan province, serving as the capital of the province, county, and district. As of the 2016 Iranian census, it had a population of 554,406 people in 174,731 households. Hamadan is believed to be among the oldest Iranian cities. It was referred to in classical sources as Ecbatana ( Old Persian ). It is possible that it was occupied by the Assyrians in 1100BCE; the Ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, states that it was the capital of the Medes, around 700BCE. Hamadan is situated in a green mountainous area in the foothills of the 3,574-meter Alvand Mountain, in midwestern Iran. The city is 1,850meters above sea level. It is located approximately southwest of Tehran. The old city and its historic sites attract tourists during the summer. The major sights of this city are the Ganj Nameh inscription, the Avicenna monument and the Baba Taher monument. The m ...
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Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the List of largest empires#Timeline of largest empires to date, largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of . The empire spanned from the Balkans and ancient Egypt, Egypt in the west, most of West Asia, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Basin, Indus Valley of South Asia to the southeast. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Medes, Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognised for its imposition of a succ ...
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Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, who was rebelling against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I ( BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and regalia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Pe ...
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Hamadan Province
Hamadan Province () is one of the provinces of Iran, 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Hamadan. In the Zagros Mountains, the province covers an area of 19,546 km2. History Hamadan province is one of the most ancient parts of Iran and its civilization. Relics of this area confirm this fact. Today's Hamedan is what is left of Ecbatana, the Medes' capital before they formed a union with the Persians. The poet Ferdowsi says that Ecbatana was built by King Jamshid. According to historical records, there was once a castle in this city by the name of Haft Hessar (Seven Walls) which was said to have a thousand rooms and its grandeur equalled that of the Babylon Tower. The structures of city are related to ''Diya Aku'', a King of the Medes from 700 BC. According to Greek records, this territory was called 'Ekbatan' and 'Hegmataneh' by this King, thus transformed into a huge capital. During the Parthian era, Ctesiphon became capital of Persia, and Hamedan b ...
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Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, and ruled by the Seleucid dynasty until its annexation by the Roman Republic under Pompey in 63 BC. After receiving the Mesopotamian regions of Babylonia and Assyria in 321 BC, Seleucus I began expanding his dominions to include the Near Eastern territories that encompass modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and Lebanon, all of which had been under Macedonian control after the fall of the former Achaemenid Empire. At the Seleucid Empire's height, it had consisted of territory that covered Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what are now modern Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a major center of Hellenistic culture. Greek customs and language were privileged; the wide vari ...
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Darius The Great
Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West Asia, parts of the Balkans (Skudra, Thrace–Achaemenid Macedonia, Macedonia and Paeonia (kingdom), Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including History of Persian Egypt, Egypt (), eastern ancient Libya, Libya, and coastal The Sudans, Sudan. Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the Achaemenid monarch Bardiya (or ''Smerdis''), who he claimed was in fact an imposter named Gaumata. The new king met with rebellions throughout the empire but quelled each of them; a major event in Darius's life was his expedition to subjugate Ancient Greece, Greece and punish Classical At ...
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Semiramis
Semiramis (; ''Šammīrām'', ''Šamiram'', , ''Samīrāmīs'') was the legendary Lydian- Babylonian wife of Onnes and of Ninus, who succeeded the latter on the throne of Assyria, according to Movses Khorenatsi. Legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, who drew primarily from the works of Ctesias of Cnidus,Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History, Book II, Chapters 1-22 describe her and her relationships to Onnes and King Ninus. Armenians and the Assyrians of Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, and northwest Iran still use ''Shamiram'' and its derivative ''Samira'' as a given name for girls. The real and historical Shammuramat, the original Akkadian form of the name, was the Assyrian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824 BC–811 BC). She ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire as its regent for five years, before her son Adad-nirari III came of age and took the reins of power. She ruled at a time of political uncertainty, which may partly explain why Assyrians may have accepted ...
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