Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Medes were an Iranian people, who lived in the northeast portion of that country. Towards the end of the 7th century BC, a large Median empire developed, which under Cyaxares helped overthrow the power of Assyria. Under his successor, Astyages, the Persians - a related and subject people - revolted under Cyrus the Great, and took over the empire. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.