The Medes were a people closely related to the Persians. In the 7th century BC they established their capital at Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), subjugating the Persians and other Iranian peoples.
The Median king Cyaxares (625-585 BC) drove out the nomadic Scythians and combined forces with the Babylonians to destroy the once mighty Assyrian Empire. The Medes and Babylonians then divided the conquered territory between them; the Babylonians controlled the Fertile Crescent, while the Medes took the highlands up to central Anatolia. Here they clashed with the Lydians, but peace was established in 585 BC and a permanent border was set between them.
In 559 BC, King Cyrus II came to the Persian throne. He rebelled against his overlord, the Median king Astyages, who was his maternal grandfather. After Cyrus's victory in 550 BC, the Median Empire became one with the Persian Empire.
