Medes

It took the newcomers (the Indo-European Armenians) around 100-200 years to conquer their new home and establish themselves. At the end of the 7th century B.C., the Medes allied themselves with the Chaldeans in the war against Assyria, a war that ended with the defeat of the Assyrians, which in turn meant the disintegration of the great Assyrian empire. According to Movses Khorenatsi, there was an Armenian prince by the name of Parouyr who participated in the defeat and the conquest of the Assyrian capital Nineveh (Ninvé). He was later, by the victors, rewarded for his efforts and was appointed as king of Armenia. The victors then each founded their own separate nations: the Medes founded the Median kingdom which constitutes presentday Iran, and the Chaldeans founded the Chaldean Empire (also called the Babylonian empire) which included presentday Iraq, Syria and Israel/Palestine. According to this division Armenia ended up in the Median Empire, but that rule does not seem to have lasted a long time (probably between 590-559 B.C.) Armenia soon regained its independence and according to the Greek historian Xenophon mentined that the Armenian leader allied himself with Cyrus, the king of the Medes.

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