The Medes were an indo- european people like the Persians and settled the western end of the Iranian plateau. They came into conflict with the Lydians, Assyrians & Scythians and created an empire that lasted from about 700 B.C., til the height of their power in the late 600's B.C.

An indo-european people whose capital was at Ectabana, modern Hamadan in Iran. The Medes together with the Babylonians overthrew the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC. After the Battle of the Eclipse in 585 BC the western border of the Median Empire was fixed at the Halys River.