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The Medes (, Old Persian ', , ) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media (North-western Iran) and who spoke the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of migrating Iranic Aryan tribes into Ancient Iran from the late 2nd millennium BCE (circa 1000 BC) (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE (circa 900 BC). This period of migration coincided with a power vacuum in the Near East, with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1020 BC) which had dominated north western Iran and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus going into a comparative decline, allowing new peoples to pass through and settle. In addition, Elam, the dominant power in Ancient Iran was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west. From the 10th to late 7th centuries BCE, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, but which stretched from Cyprus to Ancient Iran, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and Arabia. Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed ''Vassal Treaties'' upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythian and Cimmerian hordes.〔Georges Roux, ''Ancient Iraq'', 1992〕 During the reign of Sinsharishkun (622-612 BC) the Assyrian empire, which had been in a state of constant civil war since 626 BC, began to unravel. Subject peoples, such as the Medes, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Scythians, Cimmerians, Lydians and Arameans quietly ceased to pay tribute to Assyria. An alliance with the Medes and rebelling Babylonians, Scythians, Chaldeans, and Cimmerians, helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE, which resulted in the eventual collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by 605 BC. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, between 616 BCE and 605 BCE, a unified Median state was formed, which, together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt, became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great, who established the Iranian dynasty—the Persian Achaemenid Empire. A few archaeological sites (discovered in the "Median triangle" in western Iran) and textual sources (from contemporary Assyrians and also Greeks in later centuries) provide a brief documentation of the history and culture of the Median state. The Medes had almost the same equipment as the Persians and indeed the dress common to both is not so much Persian as Median. Apart from a few personal names, the language of the Medes is almost entirely unknown. However a number of words from the Median language are still in use, and there are languages being geographically and comparatively traced to the northwestern Iranian language of Median. The Medes had an Ancient Iranian Religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named as "Magi". Later and during the reigns of the last Median kings, the reforms of Zarathustra spread in western Iran. Besides Ecbatana (modern Hamedan), the other cities existing in Media were Laodicea (modern Nahavand)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Book of Iran )〕 and the mound that was the largest city of the Medes, Rhages (also called Rey), on the outskirts of Shahr Rey, south of Tehran. The fourth city of Media was Apamea, near Ecbatana, whose precise location is unknown. In later periods, Medes and especially Mede soldiers are identified and portrayed prominently in ancient Persian archaeological sites such as Persepolis, where they are shown to have a major role and presence in the military of the Persian Empire's Achaemenid dynasty. According to the ''Histories of Herodotus'', there were six Median tribes:〔Herodotus (1.101 )〕 The six Median tribes resided in Media proper, the triangle between Ecbatana, Rhagae and Aspadana,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Cambridge History of Iran )〕 in today's central Iran,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The History of Leo the Deacon )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Men of Bronze )〕 the area between Tehran, Isfahan and Hamadan. Of the Median tribes, the Magi resided in Rhaga,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=A History of Zoroastrianism )〕 modern Tehran.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Seas and Waterways of the World )〕 It was a sort of sacred caste, which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Priesthood )〕 The Paretaceni tribe resided in and around Aspadana, modern Isfahan,〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Travels in Luristan and Arabistan )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Decline of Iranshahr )〕 the Arizanti lived in and around Kashan〔 and the Busae tribe lived in and around the future Median capital of Ecbatana, modern Hamadan.〔 The Struchates and the Budii lived in villages in the Median triangle.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History of Ancient Geography )〕 ==Etymology== The original source for different words used to call the Median people, their language and homeland is a directly transmitted Old Iranian geographical name which is attested as the Old Persian "Māda-" (sing. masc.).〔 The meaning of this word is not precisely established.〔 The linguist W. Skalmowski proposes a relation with the proto-Indoeuropean word "med(h)-" meaning "central, suited in the middle" by referring to Old Indic "madhya-" and Old Iranian "maidiia-" both carrying the same meaning and having descendants including Latin ''medium'', Greek ''méso'', and German ''mittel''. The Median people are mentioned by that name in many ancient texts. According to the ''Histories of Herodotus'';〔(Herodotus (7.62.1 ))〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Medes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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