Cyaxares

Ciaxares (ancient Greek: Κυαξάρης; ancient Persian: 𐎢𐎺𐎧𐏁𐎫𐎼 Uvaxštra; Akkadian: Umakištar; ancient Phrygian: ksuwaksaros; Kurdish: Kayxusraw; in Avestan: Huxšaθra "Good Ruler"), sometimes transliterated as Ciájares, was a king of Media (reigned 625–585 BC), the third according to Herodotus.

Except for the appearance of his name in the Chronicle of the Fall of Nineveh (ABC 3) and a circumstantial mention in the Behistun Inscription, everything that is known about this sovereign comes from a later Greek source, namely: Herodotus.

The aforementioned historian, who wrote two centuries later, considers him a great military leader, the first to divide the Medes troops into sections of spearmen, archers and horsemen. He is also reputed for unifying the Iranian tribes, under Median hegemony, and turning his kingdom into a regional power, sometimes called the Median Empire, with its capital at Ecbatana.

His action was fundamental in the fall of the Assyrian Empire, a campaign in which he was an ally of Nabopolassar, with whom he was related. Around the same time, he repelled the Scythian invasions that were invading Upper Mesopotamia and Media.

Ciaxares undertook the conquest of Anatolia, and faced the kingdom of Lydia, with which he had a war that ended in a peace agreement after the battle of the eclipse on May 28, 585 BC. C.

Around that year he died, leaving a solidly structured kingdom to his son Astyages, the last king of his line through the direct paternal line. Cyrus II the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, was his great-grandson.