Great Media

Calque of Ancient Greek Μεγάλη Μηδία (Megálē Mēdía, literally “Great Media”), as inferred from Strabo's description of the division of Media in his Geography (11.13.1):

ἡ δὲ Μηδία δίχα διῄρηται: καλοῦσι δὲ τὴν μὲν μεγάλην, ἧς μητρόπολις τὰ Ἐκβάτανα […]

hē dè Mēdía díkha diēírētai: kaloûsi dè tḕn mèn megálēn, hês mētrópolis tà Ekbátana […]

Media is divided into two parts; they call the one great, whose metropolis is Ecbatana […]

Great Media

1. (historical) The larger, southern portion of ancient Media following the latter’s partition by the Macedonians, the smaller northern portion being Atropatian Media, also known as Atropatia or Atropatene.

   Synonyms: Greater Media, Media Magna

   • 1839, The Penny Cyclopædia, volume 15, London, page 54:

     Great Media, which is a high table-land, is said by all antient writers to have had a good climate and a fertile soil; [...]

   • 1871, Charles Anthon, editor, A New Classical Dictionary, New York, page 632:

     The Persian empire had now reached its greatest extent, from Thrace and Cyrenaïca on the west to the Indus on the east, and from the Euxine, the Caucasus (or, rather, a little below it), the Caspian, and the Oxus and Jaxartes on the north, to Æthiopia, Arabia, and the Erythræan Sea on the south, and it embraced, in Europe, Thrace and some of the Greek cities north of the Euxine; in Africa, Egypt and Cyrenaïca; in Asia, on the west, Palestine, Phœnicia, Syria, the several districts of Asia Minor, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylonia, Susiana, Atropatene, Great Media; on the north, [...]

   • 1891, Chambers's Encyclopædia, volume 7, page 113:

     In 147 B.C. Mithridates I. took Great Media from the king of Syria, and annexed it to the Parthian empire.