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Cyrus the Great

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

   Cyrus II of Persia
   576 or 590 BC — Autumn 530 BC
   Image:Cyrus_portrait.jpg
   An old Iranian portrait of Cyrus the Great (artist's conception).
   Place of birth Presumably Anshan
   Place of death Unknown; along the Syr Darya

   Cyrus the Great ( Old Persian: Kuruš, modern Persian: کوروش, Kourosh;
   ca. 576 or 590 BC — July 529 BC), also known as Cyrus II of Persia and
   Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Persian Empire under the
   Achaemenid dynasty. As leader of the Persian people in Anshan, he
   conquered the Medes and unified the two separate Iranian kingdoms; as
   the king of Persia, he reigned over the new empire from 559 BC until
   his death. The empire expanded under his rule, eventually conquering
   most of Southwest Asia and much of the Indian frontier to create the
   largest nation the world had yet seen.

Background

   The name Cyrus is a Latin transliteration of the Greek Κῦρος. The
   ancient historians Ctesias and Plutarch noted that Cyrus was named from
   Kuros, the sun, a concept which has been interpreted as meaning "like
   the sun," by noting its relation to the Persian noun for sun,
   khorsheed, while using -vash as a suffix of likeness. However, some
   modern historians, such as Karl Hoffmann and Rüdiger Schmitt of the
   Encyclopædia Iranica, have suggested the translation "humiliator of the
   enemy in verbal contest."

   In modern Persian, Cyrus is referred to as Kourosh-e Bozorg — the
   Persian-derived name for Cyrus the Great. In the Bible, he is known as
   simply Koresh.

Dynastic history

   A bas-relief found at Pasargadae shows a figure thought to be Cyrus,
   depicted with four Assyrian wings, and wearing a horned Egyptian-like
   crown and a Persian dress.
   Enlarge
   A bas-relief found at Pasargadae shows a figure thought to be Cyrus,
   depicted with four Assyrian wings, and wearing a horned Egyptian-like
   crown and a Persian dress.

   Cyrus the Great was the son of the Persian king Cambyses I and a Mede
   princess from the Achaemenid dynasty, which ruled the kingdom of
   Anshan, in what is now southwestern Iran. The dynasty had been founded
   by Achaemenes (ca. 700 BC), who was succeeded by his son Teispes of
   Anshan. Inscriptions indicate that when the latter died, two of his
   sons shared the throne as Cyrus I of Anshan and Ariaramnes of Persia.
   They were succeeded by their respective sons Cambyses I of Anshan and
   Arsames of Persia. However, the authenticity of these inscriptions has
   been called into question, thus blurring the history of Cyrus'
   predecessors.

   Cambyses is considered by Herodotus and Ctesias to be of humble origin,
   but they further note his marriage to Princess Mandane of Media, who
   was the daughter of Princess Aryenis of Lydia and Astyages, king of the
   Medes. From their union, Mandane bore only one son, Cyrus II, better
   known today as Cyrus the Great, whom Cambyses named after the child's
   grandfather.

   According to Ctesias, Cyrus the Great married a daughter of Astyages,
   which seems unlikely, as his wife would also be his aunt. A possible
   explanation is that Astyages married again, and his second wife bore
   him this daughter. Cyrus' first wife, Cassandane, is equally obscure.
   According to Herodotus and the Behistun Inscription, she bore Cyrus at
   least two sons, Cambyses II and Smerdis. Both sons later separately
   ruled Persia for a short period of time. Cyrus also had several
   daughters, of which two would marry Darius the Great, Artystone and
   Atossa. The latter is significant, as she gave birth to of Xerxes I,
   Darius' successor.

Early life

   The Homa griffin was one of the symbols of the Persian Empire.
   Enlarge
   The Homa griffin was one of the symbols of the Persian Empire.

   Cyrus was born in either 576 BC or 590 BC. Little is known of his early
   years, as the sources detailing that part of his life are few, and have
   been damaged or lost.

   Herodotus's story of Cyrus' early life belongs to a genre of legends in
   which abandoned children of noble birth, such as Oedipus and Romulus
   and Remus, return to claim their royal positions. His overlord was his
   own grandfather, Astyages, ruler of the powerful Median kingdom.

   After the birth of Cyrus, Astyages had a dream that his Magi
   interpreted as a sign that his grandson would eventually overthrow him.
   He then ordered his steward Harpagus to kill the infant. Harpagus,
   morally unable to kill a newborn, summoned a herdsman of the king named
   Mithridates and ordered him to dispose of the child. Luckily for the
   young boy, the herdsman took him in and raised him as his own.

   When Cyrus was ten years old, Herodotus claims that it was obvious that
   Cyrus was not a herdsman's son, stating that his behaviour was too
   noble. Astyages interviewed the boy and noticed that they resembled
   each other. Astyages ordered Harpagus to explain what he had done with
   the baby, and after confessing that he had not killed the boy, the king
   forced him to eat his own son. Astyages was more lenient with Cyrus,
   and allowed him to return to his biological parents, Cambyses and
   Mandane. While Herodotus' description may be a legend, it does give
   insight into the figures surrounding Cyrus the Great's early life.

Rise and military campaigns

Lydia and Asia Minor

   Croesus was the first ally of Astyages to attack Persia, but was
   ultimately defeated by Cyrus.
   Enlarge
   Croesus was the first ally of Astyages to attack Persia, but was
   ultimately defeated by Cyrus.

   The exact dates of the Lydian conquest are unknown, but it is generally
   suggested to have begun in 547 BC. The Lydians first attacked the
   Achaemenid Empire's city of Pteria in Cappadocia. Croesus laid siege to
   the city, and captured its inhabitants as slaves. Meanwhile, The
   Persians invited the citizens of Ionia, who were part of the Lydian
   kingdom, to revolt against their ruler. The offer was rebuffed, and
   thus Cyrus levied an army and marched against the Lydians, increasing
   his numbers while passing through nations in his way. The Battle of
   Pteria was effectively a stalemate, with both sides suffering heavy
   casualties by nightfall. Croesus retreated to Sardis the following
   morning.

   While in Sardis, Croesus sent out requests for his allies to send aid
   to Lydia. However, near the end of winter, before the allies could
   unite, Cyrus pushed the war into Lydian territory and besieged Croesus
   in his capital, Sardis. Shortly before the final battle between the two
   rulers, Harpagus advised Cyrus to place his dromedaries in front of his
   warriors; the Lydian horses, not used to the dromedaries' smell, would
   be very afraid. The strategy worked; the Lydian cavalry was routed.
   Cyrus defeated and captured Croesus. Cyrus occupied the capital at
   Sardis, conquering the Lydian kingdom in 546 BC. According to
   Herodotus, Cyrus spared Croesus' life and kept him as an advisor, but
   this account conflicts with some translations of the contemporary
   Nabonidus Chronicle, which interpret that the king of Lydia was slain.

   Before returning to the capital, a Lydian named Pactyes was entrusted
   by Cyrus to send Croesus' treasury to Persia. However, soon after
   Cyrus' departure, Pactyes hired mercenaries and caused an uprising in
   Sardis, revolting against the Persian satrap of Lydia, Tabalus. With
   recommendations from Croesus that he should turn the minds of the
   Lydian people to luxury, Cyrus sent Mazares, one of his commanders, to
   subdue the insurrection, but demanded that Pactyas be returned alive.
   Upon Mazares' arrival, Pactyas fled to Ionia, where he had hired
   mercenaries. Mazares marched his troops into the Greek country and
   captured the cities of Magnesia and Priene, where Pactyas was captured
   and sent back to Persia for punishment.

   Mazares continued the conquest of Asia Minor, but died of unknown
   causes during his campaign in Ionia. Cyrus sent Harpagus to complete
   Mazares' conquest of Asia Minor. Harpagus captured Lycia, Cilicia and
   Phoenicia, using the technique of building earthworks to breach the
   walls of besieged cities, a method unknown to the Greeks. He ended his
   conquest of the area in 542 BC, and returned to Persia.

Babylonia

   Superimposed on modern borders, the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus' rule
   extended approximately from Turkey, Israel, and Azerbaijan in the west
   to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan in the east. Persia became the
   largest empire the world had ever seen.
   Enlarge
   Superimposed on modern borders, the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus' rule
   extended approximately from Turkey, Israel, and Azerbaijan in the west
   to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan in the east. Persia became the
   largest empire the world had ever seen.

   In 539 BC, towards the end of September, Cyrus' armies, under the
   command of Gubaru, the governor of Gutium, attacked Opis on the Tigris
   river and defeated the Babylonians after a minor uprising. With Opis
   subjugated, the Persians took control of the vast canal system of
   Babylonia.

   On October 10, the city of Sippar was seized without a battle, with
   little to no resistance from the populace. It is probable that Cyrus
   engaged in negotiations with the Babylonian generals to obtain a
   compromise on their part and therefore avoid an armed confrontation.
   Nabonidus was staying in the city at the time, and soon fled to the
   capital, Babylon, which he had not visited in years.

   Two days later, on October 12, Gubaru's troops entered Babylon, again
   without any resistance from the Babylonian armies. Herodotus explains
   that to accomplish this feat, the Persians diverted the Euphrates river
   into a canal so that the water level dropped "to the height of the
   middle of a man's thigh," which allowed the invading forces to march
   directly through the river bed to enter at night. On October 29, Cyrus
   himself entered the city of Babylon and arrested Nabonidus. He then
   assumed the titles of "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king
   of the four sides of the world."

   Prior to Cyrus' invasion of Babylon, the Babylonian Empire had
   conquered many kingdoms. In addition to Babylonia itself, Cyrus
   incorporated its subnational entities into his Empire, including Syria
   and Palestine.

   Before leaving Babylon, Cyrus also freed the Israelites by allowing
   them to return to their native land, effectively ending the Babylonian
   captivity. The return of the exiles reinforced the Jewish population in
   their homeland, which had been waning since the start of the Babylonian
   rule.

   According to the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great, Cyrus'
   dominions must have comprised the largest empire the world had ever
   seen. At the end of Cyrus' rule, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from
   Asia Minor and Judah in the west to the Indus River in the east.

Death

   Ctesias reports only that Cyrus met his death while warring against
   tribes north-east of the headwaters of the Tigris. In Herodotus'
   account, Cyrus met his fate in a fierce battle with the Massagetae, a
   tribe from the southern deserts of Kharesm and Kizilhoum in the
   southernmost portion of the steppe region, after ignoring advice from
   his advisor, Croesus, to not continue forward. The Massagetae were
   related to the Scythians in their dress and mode of living; they fought
   on horseback and on foot.
   Cyrus' tomb lies in the ruins of Pasargadae, now a UNESCO World
   Heritage Site.
   Enlarge
   Cyrus' tomb lies in the ruins of Pasargadae, now a UNESCO World
   Heritage Site.

   The queen of the Massagetae, Tomyris, who had assumed control after
   Cyrus had defeated Tomyris' son Spargapises, led the attack. The
   Persian forces suffered heavy casualties, including Cyrus himself.
   After the battle, Tomyris ordered the body of Cyrus to be found, and
   then dipped his head in blood (or ordered his head to put into a
   wine-skin filled with human blood) to avenge the death of her son at
   his hands.

   Cyrus was buried in the city of Pasargadae, where his tomb remains
   today. Both Strabo and Arrian give descriptions of his tomb, based on
   eyewitness reports from the time of Alexander the Great's invasion.
   Though the city itself is now in ruins, the burial place of Cyrus the
   Great has remained largely intact; and the tomb has been partially
   restored to counter its natural deterioration over the years. According
   to Plutarch, his epitaph said,

          "O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know
          you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do
          not therefore grudge me this little earth that covers my body."

   Cuneiform evidence from Babylon (letters dated to regnal years) prove
   that Cyrus was dead in December 530 BCE, and that his son Cambyses II
   was king. His younger son, Smerdis, died before Cambyses left to invade
   the eastern front. From Herodotus' account, Cambyses killed his brother
   to avoid a rebellion in his absence. Cambyses continued his father's
   policy of expansion, and managed to capture Egypt for the Empire, but
   soon died, after only seven years of rule. An imposter named Gaumata,
   claiming to be Smerdis, became the sole ruler of Persia for seven
   months, until he was killed by Darius the Great, the grandson of
   Arsames, who ruled Persia before Cyrus' rise.

Legacy

   Cyrus the Great allowed the exiled Hebrew pilgrims to resettle and
   rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism.
   Enlarge
   Cyrus the Great allowed the exiled Hebrew pilgrims to resettle and
   rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism.

   Cyrus was distinguished equally as a statesman and as a soldier. By
   pursuing a policy of generosity instead of repression, and by favoring
   local religions, he was able to make his newly conquered subjects into
   enthusiastic supporters. Due in part to the political infrastructure he
   created, the Achaemenid empire endured long after his demise.

Religion

   The only known example of his religious policy is his treatment of the
   Jews in Babylon. The Bible records that a remnant of the Jewish
   population returned to the Promised Land from Babylon, following an
   edict from Cyrus to rebuild the temple. This edict is fully reproduced
   in the Book of Ezra. As a result of Cyrus' policies, the Jews honored
   him as a dignified and righteous king. He is the only Gentile to be
   designated as a messiah, a divinely-appointed king, in the Tanakh.

Politics and philosophy

   During his reign, Cyrus maintained control over a vast region of
   kingdoms, but it is not clear how. The organizing of the empire into
   provinces called satrapies, ruled by provincial admnistrators, vassal
   kings called satraps, dates to the reign of Darius. Cyrus demanded only
   tribute and conscripts from many parts of the realm.

   Cyrus' conquests continued the process, started by the Assyrians and
   continued by the Babylonians, of empire building where a large
   superstate, comprising many dozens of countries, races, and languages,
   were ruled under a single administration headed by a central
   government. This system of satrapies lasted for centuries, and was
   retained both by the Greek Seleucid dynasty during their control of
   Iran and later by the Persian Parthians and Sassanids.

   The Cyropaedia of Xenophon, a novel about the Great King's life, forms
   a treatise on politics, much read through the Renaissance, and indeed
   through the eighteenth century. The book influenced Sir Thomas Browne,
   who named his hermetic 1658 discourse, entitled The Garden of Cyrus,
   after the ruler. With its abundant use of metaphors, Browne
   characterizes many ancients as "vegetables", with Cyrus as "the
   splendid and regular planter".

   Even today, Cyrus is still cited as an important figure. Much of this
   is due to the policy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who boasted that the
   Iranian monarchy was 2,500 years old, and used Cyrus as some sort of
   secular model on which he could base his rule. In 1992, he was ranked
   #87 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in
   history. On December 10, 2003, in her acceptance of the Nobel Peace
   Prize, Shirin Ebadi evoked Cyrus, saying:

          I am an Iranian, a descendant of Cyrus the Great. This emperor
          proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2,500 years ago that he
          'would not reign over the people if they did not wish it.' He
          promised not to force any person to change his religion and
          faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus the
          Great should be studied in the history of human rights.

Cyrus Cylinder

   Upon taking Babylon, Cyrus issued a declaration inscribed on a clay
   barrel, known today as the Cyrus Cylinder. It recounts his victories
   and merciful acts, and documents his royal lineage. It was discovered
   in 1879 in Babylon, and today is kept in the British Museum.

   While the cylinder reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, as
   early as the third millennium BC, kings such as Urukagina began their
   reigns with declarations of reforms, the Cyrus Cylinder has been
   referred to as the "first charter of human rights"; though such a
   concept would have been alien to Cyrus and his contemporaries. The
   cylinder decrees the normal themes of Persian rule: respect for the
   gods of all peoples, just and peaceful rule, and the power and glory of
   the empire.
              Achaemenid dynasty
   Born: c. 576 or 590; Died: 529
   Preceded by:
   Cambyses I  King of Persia
               559–529       Succeeded by:
                             Cambyses II
   Preceded by:
   Astyages    King of Media
               550–529
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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