Founders: Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire

"Of all the powers in Asia, the kingdom of Cyrus showed itself to be the greatest and most glorious.."

- Xenophon in Cyropaedia

He founded the largest empire in the ancient world covering Mesopotamia, the Iranian Plateau, and Anatolia. From a vassal, Cyrus the Great (r. 559 – 530 BCE) turned Persia into a superpower for more than a century.

Early Life

Kurush or Cyrus in Persian was the son of King Cambyses I of Persian Kingdom of Anshan and Mandane, the daughter of King Astyages of the Kingdom of Medes. A result of a political marriage between a liege lord, the Medes, and the vassals, the Persians. The Medes rose to prominence when they destroyed the Neo-Assyrian empire, and in the power vacuum that followed, the Persians bowed to the destroyer of conquerors.

Scanty information plagued Cyrus’ early years. Much of the information regarding Cyrus came from Greek sources, such as Herodotus and Xenophon. His lineage, however, had been given by Cyrus’ own cylinder made after his reign.

Cyrus Hunting Wild Boar by Claude Audran the Younger

Rise of Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire

Cyrus’s true intention in rising up against the Medes also suffered from lack of information. Much of it had been stories laid out by Herodotus who made events caused occasionally by prophecies and dreams. And according to his work Histories, King Astygages had a dream that showed Cyrus killing him and so he ordered his death. Cyrus escaped and headed a rebellion.

Despite the subject of myth making and storytelling, the fact remained that Cyrus rebelled against King Astygages in 550 BCE. He suffered from many setbacks against the Medes in many encounters. In the Battle of Pasargadae, the Persian started to ran away from the battle, but something urged them to stand and fight as Polyaenus wrote:

He was defeated again, but when the Persians fled to the city, and saw their wives and children there, they were struck by the thought of what would happen to them if they fell into the hands of the victorious enemy. Upon this, they rallied and attacked the Medes, who had lost all order in their eager pursuit.

After the battle of Pasargadae, Cyrus marched towards the Median capital of Ectabana. They captured King Astygages whom he kept as a prisoner and the Medes submitted to the Persians. It turned the Persians as the new overlords.

War with the Kingdom of Lydia

With Cyrus consolidating his new Empire, war once again came in 546 BCE. The Kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia and its famously wealthy and powerful King Croesus declared war against the Persians.

King Croesus watched with dread as the Persians grew in power. Croesus, according to Herodetus, went to the Oracle of Delphi for advice and the meeting startled him. According to the Oracle, his attack would lead to the destruction of an Empire. Encouraged, the King of Lydia attacked Cyrus. Cyrus retaliated seeing the potential rich and bountiful rewards of a victory.

Croesus showing his treasures to Solon. Frans Francken the Younger

Cyrus undermined Croesus' confidence with his victory in Pteria in Cappadocia. It forced Croesus to retreat to his capital Sardis and Cyrus pursued. Cyrus' forces, however, faced the Lydian cavalry in Thymbra and according to stories, through cunning and keen observation of animal psychology, Cyrus ordered his men to board camels they brought for supplies and meet the enemy in battle. He did this knowing horses feared camels. His decision brought him victory and the Siege of Sardis began.

Sardis, ultimately, surrendered and Croesus captured. Cyrus almost executed the Lydian king by burning him, but when Croesus uttered Solon, it took Cyrus’ attention. The Persian ruler respected Croesus afterwards and the former Lydian king served as his adviser and for his successor Cambyses as well.

After Lydia fell, other Greek city-states in Anatolia, like Ionia, bowed to Cyrus. After Anatolia, the Persian army marched south into the Levant capturing the Phoenician cities like Tyre and then Jerusalem. He then returned to the east. From 545 BCE until 539 BCE, he annexed the lands from Aria and Bactria to the river of Jaxartes or Syr Darya.

Fall of Babylon

The next momentous conquest for Cyrus laid in Mesopotamia. In the great city of Babylon, Belshazzar, regent to absentee King Nabonidus disillusioned the Babylonians Cyrus sensed an opportunity in overthrowing Belshazzar. Rather than a conqueror, the Babyblonians could welcome him as a liberator.

Cyrus marched his army into the Babylonian lands. Cyrus’ analysis proved to be correct as a Babylonian governor named Gubaru defected. Eventually, many followed until the ancient city of Babylon itself surrendered to Cyrus without bloodshed. According to Poyaenus, Cyrus marched into a stunned city after he ordered the construction of a channel diverting the flow of the Euphrates and through the newly dried river bed, he marched his army into the eternal city. Whether true or not, Cyrus captured Babylon.

Fall of Babylon by John Martin

To celebrate his victory, Cyrus had a cylinder carved with his edict of tolerance in cuneiform. His tolerance towards the fallen became a cornerstone of Persian imperial policy. Compared to the typical violence to the fallen at the time, in contrast to the Assyrians, it made the Persians popular and preferred overlords.

Cyrus’ capture of Babylon had also been a cause for celebration for the Jewish captives of Babylon. Jews lived in Babylon as part of their punishment in defying the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar decades ago. Cyrus decided to liberate them and allowed them to return to Jerusalem. In addition, he gave them treasures that had been taken from Jerusalem and kept in Babylonian treasury to finance the rebuilding of the Great Temple. Politically, it secured Cyrus an a loyal and faithful ally in the Levant

Fall and Death of Cyrus the Great

In 530 BCE, Cyrus declared war against a Scythian tribe called Massageta. Herodetus described them as “to be both great and warlike.” Led by Queen Tomyris, they settled in a land called Tibe located across the Syr Darya River. According to Herodetus, Cyrus marched his forces to the Syr Darya River and built a pontoon bridge for his forces to cross.

However, the campaign turned sour. Cyrus himself suffered wounds from the fight as Herodotus wrote:

first, it is said, they stood apart and shot at one another, and afterwards when their arrows were all shot away, they fell upon one another and engaged in close combat with their spears and daggers; and so they continued to be in conflict with one another for a long time, and neither side would flee; but at last the Massagetai got the better in the fight: and the greater part of the Persian army was destroyed there on the spot, and Cyrus himself brought his life to an end there, after he had reigned in all thirty years wanting one.

In one account, Tomyris took the head of Cyrus and degraded it by plunging it into a vessel filled with blood and the Massagetai leader saying, "Drink your own fill of blood."

Tomyris Plunges the Head of the Dead Cyrus
Into a Vessel of Blood by Rubens

The Persian army retreated and brought back Cyrus’ body to Pasagradae where they laid him to rest in a simple tomb surrounded by gardens. Arrian quoted Aristobulus in the work Anabasis of Alexander describing what Alexander’s soldiers saw Cyrus the Great’s tomb:

The tomb of the famous Cyrus was in the royal park at Pasargadae, and around it a grove of all kinds of trees had been planted. It was also watered by a stream, and high grass grew in the meadow. The base of the tomb itself had been made of squared stone in the form of a rectangle. Above there was a stone building surmounted by a roof, with a door leading within, so narrow that even a small man could with difficulty enter… In the building, lay a golden coffin, in which the body of Cyrus had been buried, and by the side of the coffin was a couch, the feet of which were of gold wrought with the hammer.

Summing Up

 

Cyrus the Great founded the Persian Empire that dominated the ancient world for centuries. Though the Greeks despised the Persians due to the Greco-Persian War, they respected Cyrus. Although much of his reign had been shrouded with legends, stories, and myths, the fact that the Greeks showed reverence to him in their works meant Cyrus did well as a leader. Xenophon painted Cyrus as a great and efficient leader in his work Cyropaedia. Alexander the Great order the repair of Cyrus’ tomb.

The founder of the Persian Empire rose from a tributary kingdom into the leader of a vast territory. He showed brilliance in battle that set the tone for the expansion of Persia. His tolerance towards newly conquered people deviated from the usual practice of repression and exile that led to the rapid consolidation of Persian rule. In the end, Cyrus the Great fell in battle leaving a Persia poised to dominate the ancient world and to influence history and culture beyond its existence.

See also:

Rise and Fall of the Persian Empire

Bibliography: 

“Introduction.” In The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by Mehrdad Kia. Santa Barbara, Californi: ABC-CLIO, 2016.

Pettman, Andrew. “Cyrus II.” In Encyclopedia of World History. Edited by Marsha Ackermann. New York, New York: Facts on File, 2009.