Matiene

Matiene was the name of a kingdom in northwestern Iran^[1][2] which overran the kingdom of the Mannae. The Mannaeans were non-Indo-European, probably speaking either an Hurro-Urartian language like the Nairi or a Northeast Caucasian language like the Albanians to the north. "Other ancient historians including Strabo, Ptolemy, Herodotus, Polybius, and Pliny, mention names such as Mantiane, Martiane, Matiane, Matiene, to designate the northern part of Media."^[3]

Etymology

The name Matiene derives either from Lake Matianus (Lake Urmia) or from the Matiani or Matieni people who lived around it.^[4] When the Mannaeans were overrun by the Matiani (Iranians variously deemed to be Scythians, Sakas, Cimmerians or Sarmatians), the name of the kingdom changed from Mannae to Matiene or Matiane. Note that the name Matiene is not derived from Mitanni, a mixed Indo-Aryan and Hurrian state some 800 years earlier and on the other side of Assyria. It is also not derived from Media since it predates Media.

History

Matiene and the remnants of Mannae were ultimately conquered by the Medes in 616 BCE. Matiene became a satrapy of the Median Empire until the Persian conquest, when it became a sub-satrapy of the Median satrapy of the Persian Empire. It is sometimes referred to as Media Minor during the Persian period. The Persian capital of Matiene was Gazaca, which means place of the treasury.^[5] It was south of Lake Matianus.

Geography and Population

There were at least two ethnic areas of Matiene, the larger part in the west (now West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan) around Lake Matianus, inhabited by the Matiani, and in the east, a strip containing the mountains along the shore of the Caspian Sea (now Ardabil Province and Gilan Province), which was the home of the Caspii (early) and Cadusii (later). This country, whether called Mannae, Matiene, or Media Minor, is bounded on the north by Albania (Arran), on the northwest by Urartu, on the southwest by Assyria, and on the south by Media proper (west central Iran, centered in Ecbatana).

Cimmerians were said to have originated from the Matiani by Herodotus, moving west into Anatolia along the south shore of the Black Sea. Herodotus also said that later, in Median times, there was a second site called Matiene, along the eastern shore of the Halys river in northwestern Cappadocia across the river from the Phrygians.^[6] He stated they wore the same uniform as the Paphlagonians in the Median and Persian armies, meaning their units were combined with the Paphlagonians. It is not at all clear whether these western Matieni were descendants of the Cimmerians, a group of Paphlagonians just called by this name, actual (eastern) Matieni who migrated west from Matiene on their own, or a Median military colony on the border with Phrygia and later the Lydian empire.

Alexander's Campaign

After the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, Matiene became a satrapy of Alexander's Empire. After the death of Alexander, Matiene became independent under King Atropates. It became known as Media Atropatene or simply as Atropatene from his name.

References

1. ^ The Cambridge history of Iran, Volume 2 by William Bayne Fisher, Ilya Gershevitch, Ehsan Yar-Shater, Peter Avery, pages 256-257
2. ^ Archaeology at the north-east Anatolian frontier, I.: an historical geography and a field survey of the Bayburt Province by A. G. Sagona, Claudia Sagona, pages 41-48
3. ^ History of the Medes
4. ^ Maps showing Matiene and Lake Matianus
5. ^ Mary Boyce Ganzak Encyclopædia Iranica
6. ^ The history of Herodotus, Volume 1 by Talboys and Wheeler, 1824 page 38

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