Sargon II., Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon). Therefore this must have been the common name for Media' among the Assyrians. Only once are the Medes called A-ma-da-a-a[1]—viz., in Shalmaneser II., who, as far as our knowledge goes, first made an expedition into the Median territory. The word Manda (umman-manda)> which several scholars consider the later name of "the Medes of every race,"[2] designates those warlike hordes—e. g., the Cimmerians and the Scythians— which, after the time of Esar-haddon, forced their way from the north into the Assyrian and Median countries. Originally Madâ (Mada-a) was the designation among the Assyrians for a particular Median tribe, as were the names, Ellipi, Ḫarhar Ḫubuškia, Patušarra, Partakka, etc.
In descent the Medes did not belong to the Semitic race. That an Aryan population dwelt formerly in Media is also without proof. On the ground of recent research we may to-day conclude that a population related to the Elamites and Kossæsans first inhabited that district. Not until the time of the Sargonidae did the influx of Aryan races into Media begin. Iranian names are first found in the time of Esar-haddon —e. g., Siṭirparna, Êparna, Ramatêja, and Urakazabarna.
The first Assyrian king who pressed victoriously into Median territory was Shalmaneser II. (859–825), who boasts that, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, he crossed the lower Zab and subdued the lands Hašmar, Namri, Parsua, the country of the Amadâ
