Cyrus
（
Κῦρος; in Persian,
Kurus).
1.
A celebrated conqueror, and the founder of the Persian Empire. He comes forth in a line of
monarchs who ruled in Susiana. According to Herodotus, he was the son of Mandani, daughter of
Astyages, king of the Medes. The father of Cyrus was the Persian Cambyses. It having been
foretold that Mandani's son would become the lord of all Asia, Astyages attempted to destroy
the infant, and delivered it to Harpagus, his attendant, to kill. Harpagus, however, fearing
the anger of Mandani, gave the child to a herdsman, one Mitradates, who reared the young
Cyrus as his own son, under the name of Agradates. When ten years of age, the true parentage
of the boy was accidentally discovered by Astyages, who, after punishing Harpagus with great
barbarity, sent Cyrus to his parents in Persia. When the young prince grew up, he headed a
revolt against Astyages, who had become unpopular by his tyranny, and defeated him in battle
(B.C. 559). The Medes then accepted Cyrus as their king.
He had not been long seated on the throne when his dominions were invaded by Croesus, king
of Lydia, the issue of which contest was so fatal to the latter. (See
Croesus.) The conquest of Lydia established the Persian monarchy on a
firm foundation, and Cyrus was now called away to the East by vast designs and by the threats
of a distant and formidable enemy. Babylon still remained an independent city in the heart of
his empire, and to reduce it was his first and most pressing care. On another side he was
tempted by the wealth and weakness of Egypt, while his northern frontier was disturbed and
endangered by the fierce barbarians who ranged over the plains that stretch from the skirts
of the Indian Caucasus to the Caspian. Until these last should be subdued or humbled his
Eastern provinces could never enjoy peace or safety. These objects demanded his own presence;
the subjugation of the Asiatic Greeks, as a less urgent and less difficult enterprise, he
committed to his lieutenants. While the latter, therefore, were executing his commands in the
West, he was himself enlarging and strengthening his power in the East. After completing the
subjugation of the nations west of the Euphrates, he marched upon
Babylon (q.v.), which he took. The account of this conquest, as
described by Herodotus, is given in the article
Babylon. Recent archæological
discoveries, however, tend to discredit his narrative. A tabletinscription found at Babylon
states that Cyrus, “king of Elam,” took Sippara and Babylon
“without fighting.” This took place in B.C. 538. See Sayce,
Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments (London, 1883); and his
Introduction to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2d ed. London,
1887).
Cyrus enjoyed no long interval of repose. The protection which he afforded to the Jews was
prob
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Cyrus. (Pasargadae.)
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ably connected with his designs upon Egypt, but he never found leisure to carry
them into effect. Soon after the fall of Babylon he undertook an expedition against one of
the nations on the eastern side of the Caspian. According to Herodotus, it was the
Massagetae, a nomadic horde which had driven the Scythians before them towards the West; and,
after gaining a victory over them by stratagem, he was defeated in a great battle and slain.
The event is the same in the narrative of Ctesias; but the people against whom Cyrus marched
are called the Derbices, and their army is strengthened by troops and elephants furnished by
Indian allies; while the death of Cyrus is speedily avenged by one of his vassals, Amorges,
king of the Sacae, who gains a decisive victory over the Derbices, and annexes their land to
the Persian Empire. Cyrus died in B.C. 529. His son and successor, Cambyses, had been made by
him king of Babylon three years before. Cyrus was one of the greatest Asiatics who ever
lived; and with the exception of Egypt, the greater part of the Old World was under his rule
at the time of his death. His capitals were Ecbatana and Susa; and his tomb exists to-day at
Murgab, near Pasargadae.
2.
Commonly called “the Younger,” to distinguish him from the preceding,
was the second of the four sons of Darius Nothus and Parysatis. According to the customs of
the monarchy, his elder brother Artaxerxes was the legitimate heir-apparent; but Cyrus was
the first son born to Darius after his accession to the throne, and he was also his mother's
favourite. She had encouraged him to hope that, as Xerxes, through the influence of Atossa,
had been preferred to his elder brother, who was born while their father was yet in a private
station, so she should be able to persuade Darius to set aside Artaxerxes and declare Cyrus
his successor. In the meanwhile he was invested with the government of the western provinces.
This appointment he seems from the first to have considered as a step to the throne. He had,
however, sagacity and courage enough to perceive that, should he be disappointed in his first
expectations, the co-operation of the Greeks might still enable him to
force his way to the throne. It was with this view that he zealously embraced the side of
Sparta in her struggle with Athens, both as the power which he found in the most prosperous
condition and as that which was most capable of furthering his designs. According to Plutarch
(
Artax. 2), Cyrus went to attend his father's sick-bed with sanguine hopes
that his mother had accomplished her purpose, and that he was sent for to receive the crown.
On his arrival at court, however, he saw himself disappointed in his expectations, and found
that he had only come to witness his father's death and his brother's accession to the
throne. He accompanied Artaxerxes, whom the Greeks distinguished by the epithet of Mnemon, to
Pasargadae, where the Persian kings went through certain mystic ceremonies of inauguration,
and Tissaphernes took this opportunity of charging Cyrus with a design against his life. It
would seem, from Plutarch's account, that one of the officiating priests was suborned to
support the charge, though it is by no means certain that it was unfounded. Artaxerxes was
convinced of its truth, and determined on putting his brother to death; and Cyrus was only
saved by the passionate entreaties of Parysatis, in whose arms he had sought refuge from the
executioner. On this occasion Artaxerxes suffered her to overpower both the suspicions
suggested by Tissaphernes and the jealousy which the temper and situation of Cyrus might
reasonably have excited. He not only pardoned his brother, but permitted him to return to his
government. Cyrus felt himself not obliged, but humbled, by his rival's clemency; and the
danger he had escaped only strengthened his resolution to make himself, as soon as possible,
independent of the power to which he owed his life.
Immediately after his return to Sardis, he began to make preparations for the execution of
his designs. The chief difficulty was to keep them concealed from Artaxerxes until they were
fully matured; for though his mother, who was probably from the beginning acquainted with his
purpose, was at court, always ready to put the most favourable construction on his conduct,
yet Tissaphernes was at hand to watch it with malignant attention and to send the earliest
information of any suspicious movement to the king. Cyrus, however, devised a variety of
pretexts to blind Tissaphernes and the court, while he collected an army for the expedition
which he was meditating. His main object was to raise as strong a body of Greek troops as he
could, for it was only with such aid that he could hope to overpower an adversary who had the
whole force of the Empire at his command; and he knew enough of the Greeks to believe that
their superiority over his countrymen, in skill and courage, was sufficient to compensate for
almost any inequality of numbers.
In the spring of B.C. 401, Cyrus began his march from Sardis. His whole Grecian force, a
part of which joined him on the route, amounted to 11,000 heavy infantry and about 2000
targeteers. His barbarian troops were 100,000 strong. After directing his line of march
through the whole extent of Asia Minor, he entered the Babylonian territory; and it was not
until he reached the plain of Cunaxa, between sixty and seventy miles from Babylon, that he
became certain of his brother's intention to hazard an engagement. Artaxerxes met him
in this spot at the head of an army of 900,000 men. If we may believe Plutarch, the Persian
monarch had continued to waver almost to the last between the alternatives of fighting and
retreating, and was only diverted from adopting the latter course by the energetic
remonstrances of Tiribazus. In the battle which ensued the Greeks soon routed the barbarians
opposed to them, but committed an error in pursuing them too far; and Cyrus was compelled, in
order to avoid being surrounded by the rest of the king's army, to make an attack upon the
centre, where his brother led in person. He routed the royal body-guard, and being hurried
away by the violence of his feelings the moment he espied the king, he engaged with him, but
was himself wounded and slain by a common soldier. Had Clearchus acted in conformity with the
directions of Cyrus, and led his division against the king's centre, instead of being drawn
off into pursuit of the flying enemy, the victory must have belonged to Cyrus. According to
the Persian custom of treating slain rebels, the head and right hand of Cyrus were cut off
and brought to the king, who is said himself to have seized the head by the hair and to have
held it up as a proof of his victory to the view of the surrounding crowd. Thus ended the
expedition of Cyrus. The Greeks, after the battle, began to negotiate with the king through
Tissaphernes, who offered to lead them home. He treacherously violated his word, however; and
having, by an act of perfidy, obtained possession of the persons of the Greek commanders, he
sent them up to the king at Babylon, where they were all put to death. The Greeks were not,
however, discouraged, though at a great distance from their country and surrounded on every
side by a powerful enemy. They immediately chose new commanders, in the number of whom was
Xenophon, who has given an account of their celebrated retreat. See
Anabasis.
