* The name Kushtashpi has been compared with that of
Vistâspa or Gushtâsp by Fr. Lenormant, the name Kundashpi
with that of Vindâspa by Gutschmid, and, later on, Ball has
added to these a long list of names in Egyptian and Assyrian
inscriptions which he looks upon as Iranian. Kundashpi
recalls at first sight Gundobunas, a name of the Sassanid
epoch, if this latter form be authentic. Tiele adopts the
identification of Kushtashpi with Vistâspa, and Justi has
nothing to say against it, nor against the identification of
Kundashpi with Vindâspa.
The main body, finding its expansion southwards checked by Urartu, diverged in a south-easterly direction, and sweeping before it all the non-Aryan or Turanian tribes who were too weak to stem its progress, gradually occupied the western edge of the great plateau, where it soon became mainly represented by the two compact groups, the Persians to the south on the farthest confines of Elam, and the Medes between the Greater Zab, the Turnât, and the Caspian. It is probable that the kingdom founded by Deïokes originally included what was afterwards termed Media Magna by the Græco-Roman geographers. This sovereignty was formed by the amalgamation under a single monarch of six important tribes—the Buzo, Paraatakeni, Struchatas, Arizanti, Budii, and Magi. It extended north-westwards as far as the Kiziluzôn, which formed the frontier between the Persians and the Mannai on this side. Northwards, it reached as far as Demavend; the salt desert that rendered Central Iran a barren region, furnished a natural boundary on the east; on both the south and west, the Assyrian border-lands of Ellipi, Kharkhar, and Arrapkha prevented it from extending to the chief ranges of the Zagros and Cordioan mountains. The soil, though less fertile than that of Chaldæa or of Egypt, was by no means deficient in resources. The mountains contained copper, iron, lead, some gold and silver,* several kinds of white or coloured marble,** and precious stones, such as topaz, garnets, emeralds, sapphires, cornelian, and lapis-lazuli, the latter being a substance held in the highest esteem by Eastern jewellers from time immemorial; Mount Bikni was specially celebrated for the fine specimens of this stone which were obtained there.*** Its mountains were in those days clothed with dense forests, in which the pine, the oak, and the poplar grew side by side with the eastern plane tree, the cedar, lime, elm, ash, hazel, and terebinth.****
* Rawlinson has collected traditions in reference to gold
and silver mining among the mountains in the neighbourhood
of Takht-i-Suleiman; one of these is still called Zerreh-
Shardn, the mount of the gold-washers.
** The best known was the so-called Tauris marble quarried
from the hills in the neighbourhood of Lake Urumiyah.
*** The list of precious stones which Pliny tells us were
found in Media, contains several kinds which we are unable
to identify, e.g. the Zathênê, the gassinades and
narcissitis. Pliny calls lapis-lazuli sapphirus, and
declares that the bright specks of pyrites it contained
rendered it unsuitable for engraving. In the Assyrian
inscriptions Mount Bikni, the modern Demavend, is described
as a mountain of Uknu, or lapis-lazuli.
**** A large part of the mountains and plains is now
treeless, but it is manifest, both from the evidence of the
inscriptions and from the observations of travellers, that
the whole of Media was formerly well wooded.
The intermediate valleys were veritable orchards, in which the vegetation of the temperate zones mingled with tropical growths. The ancients believed that the lemon tree came originally from Persia.* To this day the peach, pear, apple, quince, cherry, apricot, almond, filbert, chestnut, fig, pistachio-nut, and pomegranate still flourish there: the olive is easily acclimatised, and the vine produces grapes equally suitable for the table or the winepress.** The plateau presents a poorer and less promising appearance—not that the soil is less genial, but the rivers become lost further inland, and the barrenness of the country increases as they come to an end one after another. Where artificial irrigation has been introduced, the fertility of the country is quite as great as in the neighbourhood of the mountains;*** outside this irrigated region no trees are to be seen, except a few on the banks of rivers or ponds, but wheat, barley, rye, oats, and an abundance of excellent vegetables grow readily in places where water is present.
* The apple obtained from Media was known as the Modicum
malum, and was credited with the property of being a
powerful antidote to poison: it was supposed that it would
not grow anywhere outside Media.
** In some places, as, for instance, at Kirmânshahàn, the
vine stocks have to be buried during the winter to protect
them from the frost.
*** Irrigation was effected formerly, as now, by means of
subterranean canals with openings at intervals, known as
kanât.
The fauna include, besides wild beasts of the more formidable kinds, such as lions, tigers, leopards, and bears, many domestic animals, or animals capable of being turned to domestic use, such as the ass, buffalo, sheep, goat, dog, and dromedary, and the camel with two humps, whose gait caused so much merriment among the Ninevite idlers when they beheld it in the triumphal processions of their kings; there were, moreover, several breeds of horses, amongst which the Nisasan steed was greatly prized on account of its size, strength, and agility.* In short, Media was large enough and rich enough to maintain a numerous population, and offered a stable foundation to a monarch ambitious of building up a new empire.**
* In the time of the Seleucides, Media supplied nearly the
whole of Asia with these animals, and the grazing-lands of
Bagistana, the modern Behistun, are said to have supported
160,000 of them. Under the Parthian kings Media paid a
yearly tribute of 3000 horses, and the Nisæan breed was
still celebrated at the beginning of the Byzantine era.
Horses are mentioned among the tribute paid by the Medic
chiefs to the kings of Assyria.
** The history of the Medes remains shrouded in greater
obscurity than that of any other Asiatic race. We possess no
original documents which owe their existence to this nation,
and the whole of our information concerning its history is
borrowed from Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, and from
the various legends collected by the Greeks, especially by
Herodotus and Ctesias, from Persian magnates in Asia Minor
or at the court of the Achæmenian kings, or from fragments
of vanished works such as the writings of Borosus. And yet
modern archaeologists and philologists have, during the last
thirty years, allowed their critical faculties, and often
their imagination as well, to run riot when dealing with
this very period. After carefully examining, one after
another, most of the theories put forward, I have adopted
those hypotheses which, while most nearly approximating to
the classical legends, harmonise best with the chronological
framework—far too imperfect as yet—furnished by the
inscriptions dealing with the closing years of Nineveh; I do
not consider them all to be equally probable, but though
they may be mere stop-gap solutions, they have at least the
merit of reproducing in many cases the ideas current among
those races of antiquity who had been in direct
communication with the Medes and with the last of their
sovereigns.
The first person to conceive the idea of establishing one was, perhaps, a certain Fravartish, the Phraortes of the Greeks, whom Herodotus declares to have been the son and successor of Deiokes.*
* The ancient form of the name, Fravartish or Frawarti, has
been handed down to us by a passage in the great inscription
of Behistun; it means the man who proclaims faith in Ahura-
mazda, the believer.