The division of Media commonly recognised by the Greeks and Romans was that into Media Magna and Media Atropatene (Strabo, xi, 13, § 1 ; comp. Polyb. v, 44; Pliny, H. X. vi, 13 ; Ptolera. vi, 2, etc.). 1. Media Atropatene, so named from the satrap Atropates, who became independent monarch of the province on the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander (Arrian, Exjml. Alex, iii, 8; vi, 29; Diod. Sic. xviii, 3), corre- sponded nearly to the modern Azerbijan, being the tract situated between the Caspian and the mountains which run north from Zagros, and consisting mainly of the ricli and fertile basin of Lake Urumiyeh, with the val- leys of the Aras and the Sefid Pud. Tliis is chiefly a high tract, varied between mountains and plains, and lying mostly three or four thousand feet above the sea level. The basin of Lake Urumiyeh (the Spanta of Strabo) has a still greater elevation, the surface of the lake itself, into which all the rivers run, being as much as 4200 feet above the ocean. The country is fairly fer- tile, well-watered in most places, and favorable to agri- culture; its climate is temperate, though occasionally severe in winter; it produces rice, corn of all kinds, wine, silk, white wax, and aU manner of delicious fruits. Ta- briz, its modern capital, forms the summer residence of the Persian kings, and is a beautiful place, situated in a forest of orchards. The ancient Atropatene may have included also the countries of Ghilan and Talish, together with the plain of Moghan, at the mouth of the combined Kur and Aras rivers. These tracts are low and flat; that of Moghan is sandy and sterile ; Talish is more productive? while Ghilan (like Mazanderan) is rich and fertile in the highest degree. The climate of Ghilan, however, is unhealthy, and at times pestilential; the streams perpetually overflow their banks ; and the wa- ters which escape stagnate in marshes, whose exhala- tions spread disease and death among the inhabitants. 2. Media Magna lay south and east of Atropatene. Its northern boundary was the range of Elburz from the Caspian Gates to the Rudbar pass, through which the Setid Rud reaches the low country of Ghilan. It then adjoined upon Atropatene, from which it may be re- garded as separated by a line running about south-west by west from the bridge of Menjil to Zagros. Here it touched Assyria, from which it was probably divided by the last line of hills towards the west, before the moun- tains sink down upon the plain. On the south it was bounded by Susiana and Persia Proper, the former of which it met in the modem Luristan, probably about lat. 33^ 30', while it struck the latter on the eastern side
of the Zangros range, in lat. 32° or 32= 30'. Towards the east it was closed in by the great salt desert, which Herodotus reckons to Sagartia, and later writers to Par- thia and Carmania. Media Magna thus contained a great part of Kurdistan and Luristan, with all Ardelan and Irak Ajemi. The character of this tract is very varied. Towards the west, in Ardelan, Kurdistan, and Luristan, it is highly mountainous, but at the same time well- watered and richly wooded, fertile and lovely; on the north, along the flank of Elburz, it is less charming, but still pleasant and tolerably pnoductive ; while towards the east and south-east it is bare, arid, rocky, and sandy, supporting with difficulty a spare and wretched popula- tion. The present productions of Zagros are cotton, to- bacco, hemp, Indian corn, rice, wheat, wine, and fruits of ever}' variety; everj' valley is a garden; and besides valleys, extensive plains are often found, furnishing the most excellent pasturage. Here were nurtured the val- uable breed of horses called Nisajan, which the Persians cultivated with such especial care, and from which the horses of the monarch were always chosen. The past- ure grounds of Khawah and Alishtar, between Behis- tun and Khorram-abad, probably represent the " Nisrean plain" of the ancients, which seems to have taken its name from a town Nisfea (Nisaya), mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions.
Although the division of Media into these two prov- inces can only be distinctly proved to have existed from the time of Alexander the Great, yet there is reason to believe that it was more ancient, dating from the settle- ment of the Medes in the country, which did not take place all at once, but was first in the more northern and afterwards in the southern country. It is indicative of the division, that there were two Ecbatanas — one, the northern, at Takht-i-Suleiman ; the other, the southern, at Hamadan, on the flanks of Mount Orontes (Elwand) — respectively the capitals of the two districts. See
ECBATANA.
Next to the two Ecbatanas, the chief town in Media was undoubtedly Rhages^the Raga of the inscriptions. Hither the rebel Phraortes fled on his defeat Hjy Darius Hystaspis, and hither, too, came Darius Codomannus after the battle of Arbela, on his way to the eastern provinces (Arrian, Exped. A lex. iii, 20). The onh' oth- er place of much note was Bagistana, the modern Be- histun, which guarded the chief pass connecting Media with the Mesopotamian plain.
No doubt both parts of Media were further subdivided into provinces, but no trustworthy account of these mi- nor divisions has come down to us. The tract about Khages was certainly called Rhagiana, and the moun- tain tract adjoining Persia seems to have been known as PariBtacene, or the country of the Paraetacre. Ptol- emy gives as JMedian districts Elymais, Choromithrene, Sigrina, Daritis, and Syromedia; but these names are little known to other writers, and suspicions attach to some of them. On the whole, it would seem that we do not possess materials for a minute account of the ancient geography of tlie country, which is very imperfecth' de- scribed by Strabo, and almost omitted by Pliny.