Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great (Old Persian: KurušLivius.org article by Jona Lendering, 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 and the creator of the Cyrus Cylinder, sometimes considered to be the first declaration of human rights.The Cyrus Cylinder, The First Charter of Human Rights at the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies.Forgotten Empire, Cyrus Cylinder at the British Museum As the ruler of the Persian people in Anshan, he conquered the Medes and unified the two separate Iranian kingdoms.

In historical artifacts discovered in the ancient ruins of Babylon and Ur, Cyrus identifies himself as King of Iran, where he reigned from 559 BC until his death. He is also the first ruler whose name was suffixed with the words the Great (Vazraka in Old Persian, Bozorg in modern Persian), a title adopted by many others after him, including the eventual Acheamenid Shah, Darius the Great, and Alexander the Great, who overthrew the Achaemenid dynasty two centuries after the death of Cyrus.

Background

The name Cyrus is a Latin transliteration of the Greek , which is a version of the Old Persian Koroush or Khorvash. In Persian, khour means "sun" and vash is a suffix of likeness.The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies: Cyrus the Great In modern Persian, Cyrus is referred to as Kourosh-e Bozorg — the modern Persian-derived name for Cyrus the Great. In the Bible, he is mentioned as simply Koresh.

Personal life

Cyrus was the son of a Persian king named 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 previously 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.

Cambyses is considered by Herodotus and Ctesias to be of humble origin, but they also consider him as being married to Princess Mandane of Media, a daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes and Princess Aryenis of Lydia. Cyrus II was the result of this union. Cyrus had two sons: Cambyses and Smerdis, as well as several daughters, of whom Atossa is significant, as she later married Darius the Great and was mother of Xerxes I of Persia.

Early life

In his Histories, Herodotus gives a detailed description of the rise to power of Cyrus according to the best sources available to him. The story of Cyrus' early life found in the Histories resembles other legendary accounts that form a particular genre of tales in which abandoned children of noble birth inevitably return to claim their royal positions, such as those of Oedipus or Romulus and Remus. According to Herodotus, Cyrus was said to be part-Persian (Parsua) and part-Mede. His overlord was his own grandfather, Astyages, who had conquered all Assyrian kingdoms apart from Babylonia.

After the birth of Cyrus, Astyages had a dream that his Magi interpreted as a sign of an eventual overthrow by his grandson. He then ordered his steward Harpagus to kill the infant Cyrus. Harpagus, morally unable to kill a newborn, summoned a herdsman of the king named Mithridates and ordered him to dispose of the child. Troubled by this command, Mithridates confided in his wife, Cyno. Cyno, who had recently given birth to a stillborn baby, told her husband to expose their dead child to the elements while they took Cyrus to raise as their own. Mithridates then presented the stillborn to Harpagus as proof that the task had been accomplished.

King of Persia

In 559 BC, Cyrus succeeded his father, Cambyses the Elder as king of Anshan. He apparently soon managed to succeed Arsames to the throne of Persia, though the latter was still living. Arsames was father of Hystaspes and would live to see his grandson become Darius the Great, Shahanshah of Persia. However, Cyrus was not yet an independent ruler. Like his predecessors before him, Cyrus had to recognize Median overlordship.

Several years later, when Astyages discovered that his grandson was still alive, he ordered that the son of Harpagus be beheaded and served to his father on a dinner platter. Harpagus, seeking vengeance, convinced Cyrus, who by then was living again with his noble and biological parents, to rally the Persian people, who were then in a state of vassalage to the Medes, to revolt, which occurred between 554 BC and 553 BC.

From 550 BC to 549 BC, with the help of Harpagus, Cyrus led the Persians and his armies to capture Ecbatana, and effectively conquered the Median Empire. While he seems to have accepted the crown of Media, by 546 BC he had officially assumed the title of King of Persia. Thus, the Persians gained dominion over the Iranian Plateau.

Cyrus' wars

Cyrus' wars were only just beginning. Astyages had been in alliance with his brother-in-law Croesus of Lydia (son of Alyattes II), Nabonidus of Babylon, and Amasis II of Egypt. These reportedly intended to unite their armies against Cyrus and his Persians. But before the allies could unite, Cyrus defeated Croesus at Pterium and captured him, and occupied his capital at Sardis -- overthrowing the Lydian kingdom (546 BC). According to Herodotus, Cyrus spared Croesus' life and kept him as an advisor, but it seems to be refuted by the Nabonidus Chronicle, a contemporary source, which tells that the king of Lydia was slain.

In October of 539 BC, Cyrus defeated Nabonidus at Opis and occupied Babylon. According to the Babylonian inscription, this was probably a bloodless victory. Cyrus assumed the titles of 'king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four sides of the world'. Judging from the countries listed as subject to his successor Darius on the first tablet of the great Behistun Inscription (written before any new conquests could have been made other than Egypt), Cyrus' dominions must have comprised the largest empire the world had yet seen -- stretching from Asia Minor and Judah in the west, as far as the Indus valley in the east.

Administration of the Empire

Cyrus organized the empire into provincial administrations called satrapies. The administrators of these provinces, called satraps, had considerable independence from the emperor, and from many parts of the realm Cyrus demanded no more than tribute and conscripts.

The Cyrus Cylinder

Upon his taking of Babylon, Cyrus issued a declaration, inscribed on a clay barrel known as the Cyrus Cylinder, and containing an account of his victories and merciful acts, as well as a documentation of his royal lineage. It was discovered in 1879 in Babylon, and today is kept in the British Museum. Although the cylinder reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings such as Urukagina began their reigns with declarations of reforms, the cylinder of Cyrus is widely referred to as the "first charter of human rights". In 1971, the UN translated it into all of its official languages. The cylinder decrees the normal themes of Persian rule: religious tolerance, abolishment of slavery, freedom of choice of profession and expansion of empire.

Death

Cyrus died in battle, but the Achaemenid empire was to reach its zenith long after his demise. In Herodotus' account, Cyrus met his fate in a battle with the Massagetae — a tribe from the southern deserts of Kharesm and Kizilhoum in the southernmost portion of the steppe region.Livius.org article by Jona Lendering

The queen of the Massagetae, Tomyris, prevailed after Cyrus had previously defeated Tomyris' son Spargapises. The Massagetae were related to the Scythians in their dress and mode of living; they fought on horseback and on foot. Ctesias reports only that Cyrus met his death in the year 529 BC, while warring against tribes north-east of the headwaters of the Tigris.

In his Histories, Herodotus wrote that Tomyris' Massagetae battled fiercely with Cyrus and his army. In the end, much of the Persian forces at the battle were killed, including Cyrus himself. Tomyris ordered the body of Cyrus to be found, and then dipped his head in blood, as revenge for the death of her son at the hands of Cyrus.Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae, Defeats Cyrus the Great in Battle Herodotus, The Histories

He was buried in the town of Pasargadae, where his tomb remains today. Both Strabo and Arrian give descriptions of his tomb, based on reports of men who saw it at the time of Alexander the Great's invasion. Over the years, the tomb of Cyrus the Great has been slightly restored to reduce the natural damage it had received in time.

Legacy

Cyrus was distinguished no less as statesman than as a soldier. His leadership was particularly evident in his treatment of newly conquered peoples. By pursuing a policy of generosity instead of repression, and by favoring local religions, he was able to make his new subjects into enthusiastic supporters.

Religion

A good 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, 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. Koresh (Hebrew for Cyrus) is a common name for streets in Israel and is a relatively common Israeli family name.

Politics

Cyrus' conquests began a new era in the age of empire building where a vast superstate, comprising many dozens of countries, races, and languages, were ruled under a single administration headed by a central government in Persia.Mesopotamia, The Persians by Richard Hooker Centuries later, the administrative techniques created by Cyrus and his successors Darius and Xerxes, including the Satrapy system of local governorship were adopted by the Greeks and Romans.

His exploits, both real and legendary, have been used as moral instruction or as a source of inspiration for political philosophies. The Cyropaedia of Xenophon, based on the latter's knowledge of the Great King's upbringing, was an influential political treatise in ancient times, and again during the Renaissance.

Philosophy

The English philosopher Sir Thomas Browne named his 1658 discourse after the benevolent ruler. Entitled The Garden of Cyrus, it may well be a Royalist criticism upon the autocratic rule of Oliver Cromwell.

Cyrus is still being cited today as a significant past leader. In 1992, he was ranked #87 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. Also, in accepting her 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi said:

I am an Iranian. A descendant of Cyrus The Great. The very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2500 years ago that "... he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it." And ^* promised not to force any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus The Great is one of the most important documents that should be studied in the history of human rights.

Footnotes

Sources

Primary, Babylonian Sources

The Cyrus Cylinder
The Nabonudus Chronicle, or Babylonian Chronicle 7
The Verse Account of Nabonidus

Hebrew Sources

The biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah
Flavius Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews)
The Prayer of Nabonidus (one of the Dead Sea scrolls)

Greek Sources

External links

Iran Chamber Society

Other

576 BC births | 529 BC deaths | Achaemenid dynasty | Monarchs of Persia | Persian history

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