No Median Empire?

I am presently reading "A history of the ancient near east" by Marc van de Mieroop. On page 292 he writes: "No Median Empire ever existed. Why was it concocted then? Herodotus imagined there had been a sequence of world empires in Asia before the Persian one that the Greeks confronted, He knew about Assyria and Persia, but between them was a void. This he filled with the Medes, and thereby created a phantom empire whose image is still accepted today.

De Mieroop does not deny the existence of the Medes, but that they formed an empire. What is the general opinion among historians about this?
 
I would love to know the evidence against there being a Median Empire 'cause you have me intrigued. Anyway the big problem is that information about the time period between the Assyrians and Persians seems so vague. But remember that the Greeks made no distinction between the Medes and Persians they basically called the Persians Medes. For example if you became very Persian or too close to Iranian culture the Greeks said you were "Medianized"

As for the plausibility of the Median Empire there were definitely a people known as the Medes from the time period who rebelled against the Assyrians. As for the empire itself there is a bit of linguistic Median influence in old Persian texts which are reminiscent of some sort of Median Empire preceeding the Persians. Not only that but there are Median sites situated over a relatively large area of Iran leading to the possibility of a Median Empire. There are also Persian reliefs depicting Cyrus' rebellion against some sort of empire which, considering other evidence, could well have been Median. I hope this helps.
 
I am presently reading "A history of the ancient near east" by Marc van de Mieroop. On page 292 he writes: "No Median Empire ever existed. Why was it concocted then? Herodotus imagined there had been a sequence of world empires in Asia before the Persian one that the Greeks confronted, He knew about Assyria and Persia, but between them was a void. This he filled with the Medes, and thereby created a phantom empire whose image is still accepted today.

De Mieroop does not deny the existence of the Medes, but that they formed an empire. What is the general opinion among historians about this?
I guess that depends on your definition of "empire"...
 
I guess that depends on your definition of "empire"...

I assume his opinion is that they only raided neighbouring territories and did not control them. I don´t have sufficient knowledge on the subject to have any strong opinion on it either way.
 
I assume his opinion is that they only raided neighbouring territories and did not control them. I don´t have sufficient knowledge on the subject to have any strong opinion on it either way.
Well, a lot of ancient "empires" worked on the principle "if you don't pay us off we will raid you".
I guess that might be what this guy meant.
 
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