ABSTRACT
Cyaxares subsequently expanded his territories westwards across northern Mesopotamia, through the former Assyrian heartland, into north-central Anatolia. is brought him into conict with the Lydian king Alyattes, who held sway over much of western Anatolia. An inconclusive battle fought between the two kings near the Halys river – the so-called ‘battle of the eclipse’ – resulted in their concluding a peace agreement, to the eect that the Halys would henceforth dene the border between their kingdoms. Cyaxares was succeeded by his son Astyages, who subjected his kingdom to thirty-ve years of despotic rule before he was overthrown by his ‘grandson’ Cyrus II (there are doubts about the alleged family link). Cyrus went on to found the Persian empire. Medes came to play an important role in the cultural and administrative activities of this empire, and in the defence of the realm.
