Ancient country, Middle East.
It was situated in present-day northwestern Iran and was home to the Medes, an Iranian people. In 625 BC Cyaxares united the area's tribes into a kingdom. In 614 BC he captured Ashur and later defeated the Assyrian empire and seized territory in Iran, northern Assyria, and Armenia. In 550 BC it became part of the new Persian Achaemenian dynasty under Cyrus II . Alexander the Great occupied it in 330 BC. In the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonians and then to the Seleucids ; northern Media became the kingdom of Atropatene, which passed to Parthia, Armenia, and Rome. In 226 BC the whole of Media passed to the Sāsānian s, another Persian dynasty.