Cyrus II († 529 av. J. - C.), known as Cyrus Large the , is the founder of the Persian Empire, successor of the Empire mède. It belongs to the dynasty of the Achéménides.

Legends of birth

The birth of Cyrus is the oral legend object which traditionally surrounds in Mésopotamie the figures of founders, following the example Sargon d' Akkad.

According to Hérodote (I, 107-130), Cyrus II is the son of Cambyse Ier, wire of the Persian king Cyrus I {{er}}, and of Mandane, girl of the king mède Astyage. However Astyage saw in dream that its grandson would become king in his place: it orders with Harpage, one of his parents, to make disappear the child. Harpage, not wanting to be the murderer about it, entrusts it to Mithridatès, royal herdsman of the court mède. The woman of this one, which has just lost a child still-born child, convinces it not to expose the baby to the wild beasts, but to keep it and raise it like their child. Mithridatès thus substitutes for Cyrus his/her son still-born child, of which it gives up the body in the mountain, avoided clothes of the prince. The trick is discovered when Cyrus is ten years old: at the time of a play in which it holds the role of king, it severely punished the son of Artembarès, dignitary mède. This one denounces it in Astyage, which recognizes its grandson. To be avenged to be betrayed, the king is used for Harpage the remainders of his own son at the time of a feast. Then, the magi having ensured that it does not have to fear any more, Cyrus having borne the name of king, it returns the boy near his true parents.

According to another version, brought back by Justin (I, 4,10), Cyrus baby, given up by Mithridatès in the mountain, is collected by a bitch which nourishes it and defends it against the wild beasts. Lastly, a third version, probably collected by Ctésias and brought back by Nicolas of Damas, wants that the father of Cyrus was called Atradatès, Ethnie scorned of Mardes, brigand of his state - and his mother, gardeuse of goats. “Given” to the wine waiter royal Artembarès, Cyrus ends by being adopted about it and inheriting the load it.

If the mythical elements are drawn aside, it seems certain that Cyrus II is the heir to the dynasty achéménide kings of Anshan, that one located in the plain of Marvdasht, in the Fars.

The constitution of the Persian Empire

The war médo-Persian

Towards 553, a war bursts between Astyage and Cyrus. The Babylonian sources (the Dream of Nabonide and the Chronic of Nabonide ) and Greek do not agree on the responsibility for the conflict. If Hérodote presents walk against Ecbatane because of Cyrus, the Chronique indicates that Astyage “mobilis armed and it march against Cyrus, king d' Anshan, for the conquest. ” Always it is that it follows a war médo-Persian of several years.

Astyage placed Harpage at the head of the army mède: this last betrays its sovereign and exhorts the army to be made in the same way at the time of the first battle, which sees a victory of the Persian armies. However, as opposed to what Hérodote (I, 130) claims, this battle is not enough to carry the decision. According to Ctésias (used by Diodore, IX, 23), Astyage returns its officers then, names some again and takes itself in hand the control of the war. According to Nicolas of Damas and Polyen (VII, 6-9), the engagements are violent one in Persia, particularly close to Pasargades. However, Cyrus ends up turning over the situation and gains the victory. It launches out then in the conquest of the Médie, and Ecbatane ends up falling towards 550.

Cyrus saves Astyage, which preserves a princely way of life, and is posed even like its successor: according to Ctésias and Xénophon, he marries his Amytis daughter. The Empire mède passes thus entirely under Persian control.

The conquest of the Lydie

One precisely does not know the campaigns which Cyrus in the years carries out following its victory over Astyage. But it is probably towards 547 that Crésus, king of Lydie, attacks the Persian empire: according to Hérodote (I, 46),

The empire of Astyage, wire of Cyaxare, destroyed by Cyrus, wire of Cambyse and that of Persians, which took day in day of new increases, made him put a term at its pain (related to died of his/her Atys son). He did not think any more but of the means of repressing this power before she became more formidable.

The will of conquest is added to these reasons for prudence: Hérodote further explains “Crésus thus left with its army for Cappadoce, in order to add this country in its States (…) and by the desire to avenge Astyage, his/her brother-in-law” (I, 73). The Lydian prepared by questioning the oracle of Delphes which, as to its practice, provided an ambiguous answer, ensuring to him that “if he undertook the war against Persians, he would destroy a great empire” (I, 53), and advising rerchercher to him “the friendship of the States of Greece which he would have recognized for most powerful” ( ibid ). At once, Crésus had tied a treaty of alliance with Sparte.

The counter-attack of the Persian army is not made wait. When Cyrus arrives in Cappadoce, he proposes in Crésus to become satrap of Lydie, in other words to accept the Persian domination, but this one refuses. Crésus is trustful, because it passed from alliances not only with Sparte but also with the Egypt of Amasis and Babylon - but this one finally does not intervene in the conflict. On its side, Cyrus required of the Greek cities of Ionie to make defection, but without success (Hérodote, I, 76).

After the Battle of Halys in Cappadoce, Crésus, which is not acknowledged not overcome, gone into reverse. The winter having come, it demobilizes its army and hopes to be able to benefit from the bad season to set up an army even more powerful. Against any waiting, Cyrus launches its offensive in full winter; after many battles, it ends up forcing Crésus to take refuge in its citadel of Sardes. To the fourteenth day of the seat, the city falls (probably in 546).

As for Astyage, Cyrus leaves the safe life to Crésus, allotting to him the incomes of a city of the coast to maintain its way of life. The Greek cities of Asia Mineure refuse as for them to go, but of the revolts in Babylon and in Central Asia obliges Cyrus to return in urgency to Ecbatane. He entrusts the responsibility of raising the tributes to a Lydian, Paktyès; this one revolts, gathers the Lydians and goes on Sardes. Cyrus dispatches its general Mazarès to regulate the business; it ends up capturing Paktyès, and completely puts the Lydian army under Persian command. Mazarès starts to conquer in Greek cities; then, to died of the general, Cyrus sends Harpage to complete the conquest, which lasts four years.

The conquest of the Central Asia

After its departure of Sardinian, Cyrus moves towards the oriental party of its empire; in spite of the act of allegiance of the people of Central Asia after the inversion of Astyage, several tribes were indeed raised. The chronology of the new conquests is not known that Cyrus achieves, but when it goes on Babylon in 540 were added to its empire the Parthie, the Drangiane, the Arie, the Chorasmie, the Bactriane, the Sogdiane, the Gandhara, the Scythie, the Sattagydie, the Arachosie and the Makran.

The conquest of Babylon

The néo-Babylonian kingdom of Nabonide is the second large rival of the Persian Empire consisted Cyrus. In fact, the hostilities with Babylon began certainly during the years 540; at the end of this decade, the open war bursts. Profiting from the support of Ugbaru, Babylonian governor of the country of Gutium, the army of Cyrus gains a first victory with Opis (October 10th 539), then with Sippar, and finally besieges Babylon where the army was cut off from the king Nabonide. The city is strongly strengthened, and has sufficient reserves to support a long seat. Persians divert then the course of the Euphrate to make it possible a small troop under the control of Ugbaru to seize the citadels, whereas the Babylonians celebrate a great religious holiday. Four days later, the October 12th 539, Cyrus makes its entry in the city. There still, Nabonide is saved.

According to two wedge-shaped texts, the cylinder of Cyrus and the panegyrical of Cyrus , Nabonide was an impious king, who had given up the worship of Mardouk: Cyrus on the contrary brings back the idols driven out in the temples of Babylon, and undertakes great work of restoration of the ramparts, temples and buildings civil. In fact, it is more probable than Cyrus monopolized the achievements of Nabonide, this one being known like a king builder.

The Old Testament tells how Cyrus authorizes the Judaea NS exiled in Babylon to return to Jerusalem, and gives the order to rebuild the Temple destroys at the time of the catch of the city by Nabuchodonosor. Presented like protected from Mardouk by the Cylinder , Cyrus becomes the oint of Yahvé in the Livre of Isaïe: “Thus the Eternal with his oint speaks, in Cyrus, which it holds by the hand, to embank the nations in front of him, and to slacken the belt of the kings, to open the doors to him, so that they are not closed any more. ” (45: 1-3).

But Judaea was impoverished considerably in the interval, and only the foundation of the Temple can take place under the reign of Cyrus. Judaea does not become again an independent kingdom, but a province of the Persian Empire, which is used the strategic intentions as Cyrus vis-a-vis the Egypt. All the conquered area was joined together in only one and immense Satrapie joining together Babylon, the Syria, and the Palestine.

The Cylinder of Cyrus

After its catch of Babylon, Cyrus published a declaration, registered on a known cylinder of Argile under the name of cylinder of Cyrus, and containing a description of its victories and acts sympathizing, as well as a documentation of its royal line. He was discovered in 1879 in Babylon, and is preserved today at the British Museum. Although the cylinder reflects a long tradition mésopotamienne according to which, as of the OJ, of the kings such as Urukagina began their reigns with declarations of the reforms, the cylinder of Cyrus is largely mentioned like the “first charter of the human rights”. Into 1971, UNO translated it in all its official languages. The cylinder issues the normal topics of the rule Persian: religious tolerance, abolition of slavery, freedom of the choice of profession and expansion of the empire.

Edict of Cyrus the Large one

" I am Cyrus, king of the World, large king, powerful sovereign, king de Babylone, king of the ground of Akkad and Sumer, king of the four cardinal points, wire of Cambyse, large king d' Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, large king, king d' Anshan, founder of a royal line, that whose Bel and Nabou cherish the reign, that by which the reign delights their heart. When I entered Babylon with the spirit best laid out, I installed my capacity in the royal palace in the middle of the most complete satisfaction and of a renewal of joy. Marduk, supreme god, were at the origin of the attachment of the Babylonians to my person. Each day I did not forget to return grace to him. My army settled without difficulty in the medium even of Babylon. I did not let any of my soldiers sow terror on the ground of Akkad and Sumer. I kept in mind the needs for Babylon and his many places of worship to ensure a peaceful life to them. I removed the malséant yoke which weighed on the Babylonians. I gave again life with their dwellings left with the abandonment. I put a term at their misfortune. Considering my acts, Marduk, supreme sovereign, is delighted, granting its blessing to my person like with that of my son Cambyse, flesh of my flesh, like with my army; and for our part, we returned thanks to his glorious divinity. All sedentary kings sitted on their throne everywhere throughout the world, of the sea higher than the lower sea, and all the wandering kings of the Western ground, all paid me an important tax and kissed my foot in my town of Babylon. I restored and consolidated everywhere the divinities whose worships had been abandoned under the domination of Tigris, in the towns of Ashur and Suse, in Agade, Eshnuna, Zamban, Meurnu, DER, and until on the ground of Gutium. I gathered all the inhabitants and raised their houses. In accordance with the wish of Marduk, Powerful God, I left without worrying them to remain in their temples the divinities of Sumer and Akkad that Nabonide, then causing the fury of the god of the gods, had inserted in Babylon. Can each god of which I consolidated the worship to intercede daily in my favor at Bel and of Nabou, to prolong my days; and can they speak about me in these terms: “Makes that Cyrus, the pious king and his Cambyse son… "

ref.: Farah Pahlavi, Memories , publication: October 9th, 2003

The death of Cyrus

The end of the lifetime of Cyrus is badly known; it is known only that it launches a campaign against the Massagètes of Central Asia. He dies during this countryside, in 530 or 529. His/her son Cambyse, whom it designated as successor (Hérodote, I, 208), makes bring back his body to Pasargades, where it rests in the tomb which it made build of alive sound (Ctésias §8). The monument is still visible today.

Sources

• Dinon, preserved by (XIV, 633d-e).

• Ctésias, preserved by Nicolas of Damas ( FGrH 90. F66) and by Photius.
• .
• (I).
• (I, 4 and suiv.).
• .

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