Cyrus II (Karash or Kurush II) - a gifted commander and king of Persia, who during his lifetime received the nickname "Great" when he founded the powerful Persian Empire, uniting disparate states from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Why was the Persian king Cyrus called the Great? The name of the wise ruler and brilliant strategist is covered in legends, many facts are forgotten forever, but majestic monuments testifying to the victories of Cyrus have survived to this day, and in Pasargadae, the first capital of the Achaemenids, there is a mausoleum where his remains are supposedly buried.
Cyrus the Great: Brief Biography
The origin and exact years of the life of Cyrus the Great are unknown. In the archives of ancient historians - Herodotus, Xenophon, Xetius - conflicting versions have been preserved. According to the most common of them, Cyrus was a descendant of Achaemen, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, the son of the Persian king Cambyses I and the daughter of the king of Media Astyages (Ishtuvegu) Mandana. He was born presumably in 593 BC
Interesting fact
From the first days of life, the royal baby faced severe trials. Having believed his prophetic dreams and the predictions of the priests about the future great conquests of the boy, who was still in the womb, Astyages instructed one of his subjects to kill the newborn grandson. Whether out of pity or because of unwillingness to engage in a monstrous deed, Harpag himself, a dignitary of the Median king, handed over the child to a shepherd slave, ordering him to be thrown into the mountains to be eaten by wild animals. At that time, a newborn son died at the slave, whose body he dressed in luxurious clothes of a prince and left in a secluded place. And Cyrus took the place of the shepherd who died in the hut.
Years later, Astyages found out about the deceit and severely punished Harpag by killing his son, but he left his grown grandson alive and sent him to his parents in Persia, because the priests convinced him that the danger had passed. Later, Harpag went over to the side of Cyrus, leading one of the armies of the Persian king.
Revolt against the Medes
About 558, Cyrus became king of Persia, which was dependent on Media, and a vassal of his grandfather Astyages. The first uprising of the Persians against Media took place in 553. It was initiated by Harpagus, who organized a conspiracy of the Median courtiers against Astyages and attracted Cyrus to his side. 3 years after the bloody battles, the Persian king captured Ecbatana, the capital of Media, deposed and captured the Median king.
Anti-Persian Coalition
After the triumphant rise of the king of small and previously completely insignificant Persia, the rulers of the most powerful at that timestates of the Middle East and Asia Minor - Egypt, Lydia, Babylon - formed a kind of coalition in order to prevent the advance of the Persian troops in any direction. The coalition was supported by Sparta - the most militarily strong Hellenic policy. By 549, Cyrus the Great conquered Elam, located in the southwestern part of modern Iran, then conquered Hyrcania, Parthia, Armenia, which were part of the Median state. The king of Cilicia voluntarily went over to the side of Cyrus and subsequently provided him with military assistance on several occasions.
Conquest of Lydia
The campaigns of Cyrus the Great have forever gone down in history. In 547 BC the legendary Croesus, the king of prosperous Lydia, tried to capture Cappadocia, which was in the territory subject to Cyrus. The Lydian army met with a fierce rebuff, Croesus chose to withdraw his troops in order to recuperate, and then recapture Cappadocia from Cyrus. But the Persian army, almost the next day, was at the walls of Sardis, the capital of Lydia and an impregnable fortress. Croesus was forced to throw his best cavalry into battle, but Cyrus and Harpagus, who by that time had become a military leader and one of the most reliable subjects of the king of Persia, came up with a brilliant tactical move: in the forefront of the Persian army, instead of cavalry, there was a column of camels on which armed warriors sat. The Lydian horses, sensing the unpleasant smell of camels, reared up, threw riders and fled. The Lydian horsemen had to take the fight on dismount, which led to defeat. Sardiswere under siege, but after only a couple of weeks they fell, as the Persians conquered the sheer walls of the fortress, using a secret path. Croesus was captured by Cyrus, and Lydia, which was controlled by Harpagus, became part of the Persian Empire.
King Cyrus the Great, with the support of the former Median courtier who almost killed him in infancy, achieved incredible success. While Cyrus was advancing deep into Central Asia with his troops, Harpagus captured the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor and crushed an uprising against the Persians in Lydia. Gradually, the Achaemenid Empire expanded in all directions of the world. From 545 to 540 BC e. it included Drangiana, Bactria, Khorezm, Margiana, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandakhara, Gedrosia.
The Capture of Babylon by Cyrus the Great
Now the main threat to Cyrus the Great is concentrated in Babylonia, uniting Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Phenicia, eastern Cilicia, north of the Arabian Peninsula. The king of Babylon, Nabonidus, had enough time to prepare for a serious war with the Persians, while the troops of Cyrus erected defensive earthen ramparts in the valleys of the Diyala and Gind rivers. The ancient Babylonian kingdom was famous for its powerful army prepared for any battles and a large number of impregnable fortresses scattered throughout the territory. The most complex defensive structure was the Babylonian fortress with a deep moat filled with water and thick walls from 8 to 12 meters high.
However, Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, whose biographypresented to your attention in the article, approaching the capital. August 539 was marked by the crushing defeat and death of the stepson of the Babylonian king under Opis on the Tigris. Having crossed the Tigris, the Persians captured Sippar in October, and in just a couple of days Babylon was taken almost without a fight. Nabonidus, who did not enjoy popularity and respect neither among the inhabitants of Babylon itself, nor among the countries conquered by him, nor among his own courtiers and soldiers, was deposed, but not only survived, but also received the post of satrap in Carmania.
King Cyrus the Great allowed the deported peoples to return home, retained the privileges of the local nobility, ordered the restoration of temples destroyed by the Babylonians and Assyrians in the occupied territories, and the return of idols there. It was thanks to Cyrus that the Jews had the opportunity to return to Palestine and restore their main shrine - the Temple of Jerusalem.
How Egypt managed to maintain sovereignty
In 538, Cyrus proclaimed himself "king of Babylon, king of countries". All provinces of the Babylonian Empire voluntarily recognized the authority of the Persian ruler. Achaemenid kingdom by 530 BC stretched from Egypt to India. Before moving troops to Egypt, Cyrus decided to take control of the territory between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea, where the nomadic Massagetae tribes lived under the leadership of Queen Tomiris.
Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, handed over the reins of Babylon to his eldest son Cambyses II and went to the northeastern limits of his kingdom. Hike this timeended tragically - the great conqueror died. Cambyses could not immediately find the remains of his father and bury him with dignity.
Angry mother - the cause of the death of Cyrus the Great
What else did Cyrus the Great become famous for? Interesting facts permeate his biography through and through. Below is one of them.
At the first stage, Cyrus, as always, was lucky. In front of his army, the king ordered to put a convoy loaded with wineskins. A detachment of nomads attacked the convoy, the soldiers drank wine and, drunk, were captured by the Persians without a fight. Perhaps everything would have ended well for the Persian king if the queen's son had not been among the captured Massagetae.
Having learned about the captivity of the prince, Tomiris became furious and ordered to kill the cunning Persian at any cost. In the battle, the Massagets showed such fury that the Persians did not even manage to carry the body of the deceased king from the field. By order of Tomyris, the severed head of Cyrus was put into a wineskin with wine…
Empire after the death of Cyrus
The death of Cyrus II the Great did not cause the collapse of his empire. The grand Achaemenid kingdom existed in the form in which it was left by a gifted commander for another 200 years, until Darius, a descendant of Cyrus, crushed Alexander the Great.
Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, was not only a brilliant strategist who knew how to calculate every little thing, but also a humane ruler who managed to maintain his power in the conquered territories without cruelty andbloodshed. For centuries, the Persians regarded him as the "father of nations" and the Jews as Jehovah's anointed one.
