Cyrus II

(reigned 559-530 b.c.)

   The first and arguably greatest king of the Persian Empire. Born in the Persian homeland of Fars, located north of the Persian Gulf, Cyrus traced his ancestry back to Achaemenes, a legendary character who had supposedly brought together the original Persian hill tribes. When Cyrus becamerulerofFarsattheageofabout forty-one, the Persians and other subject peoples of the Medes were discontented with the reigning Median king, Astyages. Cyrus correctly reasoned that many of these peoples would offer Astyages little support if he were attacked. Thus, after careful preparations, Cyrus launched a rebellion against the Medes in 553 b.c. Three years later the Persians took the Median capital of Ecbatana and captured Astyages.

   Cyrus had bigger plans than merely taking over the territories then under Median control, however. In 546 B.c.he marched his army northwestward into Anatolia and invaded the kingdom of Ly-dia, which the Median king Cyaxares II hadfailedtocaptureagenerationbefore. After Lydia had been brought into the Persian fold, Cyrus returned to Fars and began construction on some palaces and other large-scale structures at his capital of Pasargadae. Then he turned eastward and conquered the peoples who lived in northern Iran and in Bactria (now part of Afghanistan). These eastern conquests nearly doubled the size of the Persian Empire. Finally, Cyrus felt confident enough to attack the Babylonians, who then controlled most of Mesopotamia. Late in 539 b.c. the Persians reached Babylon itself, which capitulated without a fight. Cyrus's first official proclamation after seizing the greatest city in the world stated, in part, "I am Cyrus, king of the universe, Great King, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the world quarters."

   Babylonia's imperial possessions, including most of Palestine, now belonged to Cyrus. But his own imperial ambitions were still not satisfied. He desired to add the land of Egypt to his realm, and he charged his son, Cambyses, with raising and training a huge new army for that purpose. But Cyrus did not live to see the conquest of Egypt. In about 530 B.c.he died of a wound suffered in battle while campaigning in the east near the Aral Sea. His body was carried back to Pasargadae and placed in a simple but beautiful stone tomb, which today survives almost completely intact, and Cambyses succeeded him on Persia's throne.

   However, the memory of Cyrus and his deeds persisted. Though he had conquered by the sword, he had created a reputation as an unusually wise and fair ruler who inspired people to follow him. More than a century later, the Greek adventurer and writer Xenophon wrote a long account of Cyrus's early years, saying of him in the introduction:

   He ruled over [a great many] nations, even though they did not speak the same language as he, nor one nation the same as another; for all that, he was able to cover so vast a region with the fear which he inspired, that he struck all men with terror and no one tried to withstand him; and he was able to awaken in all so lively a desire to please him, that they always wished to be guided by his will. Moreover, the tribes that he brought into subjection to himself were so many that it is a difficult matter even to travel to them all, in whatever direction one begins one's journey from the palace, whether toward the east or the west, toward the north or the south. Believing this man to be deserving of all admiration, we have therefore investigated who he was in his origin, what natural endowments he possessed, and what sort of education he had enjoyed, that he so greatly excelled in governing men. (Cyropaedia 1.1.5-6)

   See also: Astyages; Cyaxares II; Persian Empire