History glossary
Median
relating to Media or the Medes, whose kingdom shaped Persia before Cyrus' rise.
- Category
- Historical adjective
- Region
- Media and the Iranian plateau
- Date range
- 7th-6th centuries BCE
What it means
Median describes people, power, or institutions connected with Media and the Medes. In the Persian story, Median power supplied Cyrus with territory, elites, routes, and political experience after he defeated Astyages.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Persian Empire
From Cyrus the Great to Alexander's conquest, the Achaemenid Persian Empire turned regional kingship into a vast realm held together by conquest, roads, tribute, local cooperation, and royal power.
Mesopotamia
Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was one of the birthplaces of urban civilisation. In this Tigris and Euphrates civilization, communities built some of the first cities, developed cuneiform writing, organised law codes, and created early empires. From Sumer and Akkad to Babylon and Assyria, this history of Mesopotamia shows how farming, irrigation, temples, kingship, trade, and record-keeping helped create the structures of complex society. It also works as a Mesopotamia timeline and Mesopotamia civilization overview, with clear Mesopotamia facts tracing how Mesopotamian civilization grew from villages into states and empires.
