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Cyrus Biography

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CYRUS THE GREAT, or CYRUS THE ELDER (c.600-529 B.C.). The founder of the Persian Empire and conqueror of Babylon, whom Isaiah called the anointed of the Lord and his shepherd (Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. 1). The name of this monarch appears in the Babylonian inscriptions as Kuraš, in Hebrew as Kor½s whence Latin Cyrus. According to Herodotus. the name signifies sun: but there is some possibility, judging from the Neo-Elamitic, that its signification may have been shepherd, with which the Isaiah passage might be compared. The lineage of this great King we have on his own authority on a famous cuneiform cylinder discovered some years ago. (Consult Rawlinson, Journal Asiatic Society, London, 1880, and Hagen, in Delitzsch and Haupt, Beiträge zur Assyriologie, vol. ii, Leipzig, 1894.) This was written in the Babylonian language and is now among the treasures of the British Museum. In this Cyrus traces his royal claim through his father, Cambyses, and his grandfather, Cyrus, hack to Teispes; the latter was the son of Achæmenes (q.v.), founder of the Achæmenian line. The ancestral home was Anshan, or Anzan, which is believed to have been a city or district of Elam (q.v.). However that may be, there can be no doubt that Cyrus was a Persian, and he is rightly so called in the Old Testament.

According to the cuneiform records of Nabonidus, Cyrus was a vassal of Astyages, who is spoken of as King of the Medes, or again of the Scythians. There is good ground for believing that Cyrus was directly connected with this ruler by the ties of blood. Herodotus (i, 107 ff.) expressly states that Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages, whose daughter Mandane had been married to Cambyses, a Persian noble. The Greek historian has a number of interesting and highly colored legends to narrate regarding the fear of Astyages for the infant as his future vanquisher, with popular stories also regarding the fortunes of the youthful prince and his rapid elevation to power. Whatever value is to be placed on these picturesque accounts, there is no question that Cyrus's triumphant career began with his overthrow of Astyages and his final mastery of Media before the year 550 B.C. The conquest of the Median Empire opened the way for further success, and Cyrus turned his victorious arms against Crœsus of Lydia, whom he vanquished 546 B.C. Asia Minor was thus brought practically under this ambitious ruler's sway.

The time had now arrived to strike a mighty blow against Babylon. Nabonidus, the King of that ancient capital, seems to have estranged himself from his subjects and to have lost the favor of the priestly class. By preference he lived at Tem³, or Tev³, and when the condition of affairs within Babylon itself became such as to call him back, it was too late. The account of the fall of the city we can gather by combining the testimony of the cuneiform records with the biblical narrative and Herodotus. Internal factions seem to have been numerous; the Jews, who were in captivity in the city, apparently played a part. Babylon is stated to have fallen without fighting before the victorious hosts of Cyrus, and Nabonidas was utterly overthrown. Belshazzar of the Old Testament may have been B¶l-šar-usur, the son of Nabonidus, who, according to the inscriptions, offered resistance to the advance of Cyrus's forces. The fall of the city itself occurred at the moment of the great Tamuz festival (July, 539), and it was actually accomplished by Cyrus's satrap Gobryas (Gubaru or Ugbaru of the inscriptions), who was in command of the advance army. Cyrus himself made his triumphal entry into the city in October, 539, and became King of Babylon. The famous cylinder above referred to records the inauguration of his rule. We know in general that his policy towards the conquered people was a most liberal one, and even though it may have fallen somewhat short, perhaps, of the enthusiastic hopes of a prophetic Isaiah, its ultimate influence and effects are undoubted as having contributed towards the restoration of the Jews from captivity. See BABYLON.

The ambition of Cyrus, growing with advancing years, led finally, it seems, to his own destruction. The vision which Herodotus tells us Astyages beheld in a dream of the figure of the youthful Cyrus adorned with wings that overshadowed all Asia seemed now on the eve of fulfillment. The great conqueror's dominions actually extended almost from the Hellespont to the Indus. But disaster was at hand. Cyrus engaged in an invading expedition against the Scythian hordes of the north (Herodotus, i, 204; Ammianus Mareellinus, 20, 6, 7, 40). In a battle against their Queen, Tomyris, Cyrus is said to have been slain. Ctesias (Pers. 6-8) , however, states that Cyrus fell in battle against the Derbicæ, a tribe bordering on India. The year of his death was 529-528 B.C., and his age is given as 71 years. His body is said to have received a final resting place at Pasargadæ. A tomb, now empty, still stands there surmounting a series of rising stone steps. Near by is a huge monolith slab that once bore his name; but this is broken and tumbled down, a monument. like the empty and lonely mausoleum, silently recording the fall of greatness.

In estimating the character of Cyrus, after we have considered all the accounts of him, we may judge him to have been not only a man of great personal power, but an ideal king. The Persians called him father (Herodotus, iii, 89, 160); the Jews looked upon him as their liberator; the Greeks admired his qualities as a ruler and legislator (Æschylus, Pers. 764-68) ; and Xenophon chose him as the hero of his famous historic romance, the Cyropædia. Taken for all in all, his claim to be entitled Cyrus the Great as history has crowned him, remains unchallenged with time. The best short account of Cyrus, with abundant references, is that of Justi, in Geiger and Kuhn, Grundriss der iranisehen Philologie (Strassburg, 1897). Consult also Duncker, History of Antiquity, Eng. trans. (London, 1881).