in the achaemenid period azerbaijan was part of the satrapy of media. when the achaemenid empire collapsed, atropates, the persian satrap of media, made himself independent in the northwest of this region in 321 b.c. thereafter greek and latin writers named the territory media atropatene or, less frequently, media minor. the middle persian form of the name was (early) āturpātakān, (later) ādurbādagān whence the new persian āḏarbāyjān.