Median dynasty

In Neo-Assyrian texts from the time of Sargon II, there are several mentions of a Mannean chieftain named Daiaukku, who may be identified with Deioces.

These same texts mention that Daiaukku, as the governor of the province of Mannea, joined the king of Urartu against the Mannean ruler.

This identification is based on the Behistun Inscription statement of a fear called Fravartis (or Phraortes in the Greek transcription), who revolted against the Persian king Darius the Great in 522 BC, claiming to be XšaØrita "of the family of Cyaxares".

If the beginning of Deioces' reign is moved to 728 BC, the absolute chronology of the dynasty can be presented as follows:[1] However, this chronology was rejected by scholars when Rene Labat demonstrated that, in various manuscripts of Herodotus' Histories, the 28 years of Scythian rule had in fact been counted as part of the reign of Cyaxares, making it impossible for Phraortes to have been the Kashtariti from Assyrian sources.

In this account, Phraortes was the one who ended Assyrian rule and, as Herodotus claims, attacked the Persian tribes and began to subjugate many other peoples in Asia.

According to Diakonoff, Herodotus may have oversimplified the chronology, and transferred to Deioces the activities of several generations of Median chiefs, thus attributing to him the founding of the fear realm.

Cyaxares, in coalition with Babylonia, conquered the Neo-Assyrian Empire and established Median rule over the parts of Asia that are east of the river Halys.

Herodotus and Xenophon claim that he had a daughter named Mandane, who would have married Cambyses I and would have been the mother of Cyrus the Great.