Camby'ses
(
Καμβύσης).
1. The father of Cyrus the Great, according to Herodotus and Xenophon, the former of whom tells us (1.107), that Astyages, being terrified by a dream, refrained from marrying his daughter Mandane to a Mede, and gave her to Cambyses, a Persian of noble blood, but of an unambitious temper. (Comp.
Just. 1.4.)
The father of Cambyses is also called 'Cyrus' by Herodotus (
1.111).
In so rhetorical a passage as the speech of Xerxes (
Hdt. 7.11) we must not look for exact accuracy in the genealogy. Xenophon (
Xen. Cyrop. 1.2) calls Cambyses the
king of Persia, and he afterwards speaks of him (
Cyrop. 8.5) as still reigning after the capture of Babylon, B. C. 538.
But we cannot of course rest much on the statements in a romance.
The account of Ctesias differs from the above. [ASTYAGES.]