Eduard Meyer

“ But the Iranian Medes were not the only inhabitants of the country. The names in the Assyrian inscriptions prove that the tribes in the Zagros and the northern parts of Media were not Iranians nor Indo-Europeans, but an aboriginal population, like the early inhabitants of Armenia, perhaps connected with the numerous tribes of the Caucasus. We can see how the Iranian element gradually became dominant: princes with Iranian names occasionally occur as rulers of these tribes. ”

“ Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was least of all 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 based upon a wrong etymology of the name (which is falsely explained as “country of fire-worship”) , and has no foundation whatever. There can be no doubt that the kings adhered to the Persian religion; but it is not probable that it was deeply rooted among their subjects, especially among the non-Aryan tribes. ”

“ From then the Median king ruled over the greatest part of Iran, Assyria and northern Mesopotamia, Armenia and Cappadocia. His power was very dangerous to their neighbours, and the exiled Jews expected the destruction of Babylonia by the Medes (Isa. xiii., xiv., xxi.; Jerem. l., li.) . When Cyaxares attacked Lydia, the kings of Cilicia and Babylon intervened and negotiated a peace in 585, by which the Halys was established as the boundary. Nebuchadrezzar married a daughter of Cyaxares, and an equilibrium of the great powers was maintained till the rise of Cyrus. ”

“ On a tract of about 150 m. the western part of Iran is connected with the east (Khorasan, Parthyaea) only by a narrow district (Choarene and Comisene) , where human dwellings and small villages can exist.
The people of the Mada, Medes (the Greek form Μῆδοι is Ionian for Μᾶδοι) appear in history first in 836 B.C., when the Assyrian conqueror Shalmaneser II. in his wars against the tribes of the Zagros received the tribute of the Amadai (this form, with prosthetic a-, which occurs only here, has many analogies in the names of Iranian tribes) . ”

“ The capital was Gazaca in the central plain, and the strong castle Phraaspa (Dio Cass. xlix. 26; Plut. Anton. 38; Ptol. vi. 2, 10) or Vera (Strabo xi. 523) , probably identical with the great ruin Takhti Suleiman, with remains of Sassanid fire-altars and of a later palace. ”