ASTIAGE (Greek Ἀστινάγης; Ittueggu in the cuneiform documents). - Last king of Media (584–50 B.C.), CISSA (v.). Around 553 CIPRO (v.), king of Anfani in Susiana and vassal of A., rebelled against his lord and, through the treachery of the Median general Arpago, defeated him and annexed Media to the Persian kingdom (550). A. remained a prisoner of Ciro until his death, though Ciro treated him with consideration. According to Herodotus, Ciro’s mother, Mandane, was said to have been A.’s daughter; this, however, is contradicted by Ctesias. A. is mentioned in Dan. 13, 65 (Theodotion and the Vulgate), as the predecessor of Ciro.
Cf. Herodotus, I, 46, 73, 75, 107, 123, 127–30; Ctesias-Ragu, 29, para. 2; Inscription I of Nabonidus, col. I, ll. 28–33, and Chronicle of Nabonidus and Ciro, col. II, ll. 1–4 (in Eb. Schrader, Kellincher, Bibliothec, III, 2, Berlin 1890, pp. 99, 129 ff., and H. Gressmann, Altoriental. Texte, 2nd ed., Berlin-Leipzig 1926, pp. 366–68).