THE GREAT KING CYRUS (558 - 528 BC)

THE GREAT KING CYRUS (558-528 BC)

The great empires that existed in history are important not because of their political influence but because of their cultural influence. Political control over an empire always collapses at some point, but things like language, literature, customs endure through the ages. One of the ancient and perhaps the most important great empires in Southwest Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean was the Persian Empire, with King Cyrus the Great, son of Cambyses, a Prince of Persia, and Mandane, daughter of Astyages, King from Media.

Cyrus (or the Persian name Kurush) was born around 590 BC in the Province of Persia (now Fars), in southwestern Iran. This area was then a province of the Medes Kingdom. Cyrus came from a lineage of local rulers who were subordinate to the King of Medes.

Traditions that emerged later made this interesting story about Cyrus himself, as if reminding people of the Greek fairy tale about King Oedipus. According to this legend, Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages, King of the Medes. Before Cyrus was born, Astyages dreamed that his grandson would one day dethrone him. The king issued an order that all newborn babies be killed completely. However, the official who believed he had committed the murder did not have the heart to carry out the cruel murder, but he forwarded the order to the shepherd and his wife to carry it out. But they also do not have the heart. They are not killing baby boys but keeping him as their own child. Finally, when the boy grew up, he really overthrew the king from his throne.

The Medes and Persians were close to each other, both because of their origin and language similarities. Because Cyrus continued to pass on most of the laws of the Medes and most of the administrative procedures of the government, his victory over the Medes was merely a dynastic change and not a foreign conquest.

However, Cyrus immediately revealed his desire to conquer outside. His first target was the Lydian Kingdom in Asia Minor, ruled by King Croesus, a man whose wealth was like a fairy tale. Cyrus' iron pales in comparison to Croesus' gold. By 546 BC Cyrus had conquered the Lydian Kingdom and had Croesus in custody.

Cyrus then turned his attention to the east, and in a series of battles, he conquered all of eastern Iran and incorporated it into his empire. In 540 BC, the Persian Empire stretched east as far as the Indus River and the Jaxartes (now the Syr Darya in Central Asia).

With the back protected. Cyrus can focus on the most precious and all. The Babylonian empire was prosperous and secure, located in the center of Meopotamia but able to oversee the entire Middle Eastern "fertile crescent". Unlike Cyrus, the Babylonian ruler Nabonidus was not popular with the people. When Cyrus' army moved forward, the Babylonian army fell at Cyrus' knees without a fight. Since the Babylonian Empire included Syria and Palestine, these two areas were also included in Cyrus' territory.

Cyrus spent several years consolidating his hold and reorganizing the vast empire he had captured. Then he led the Army to the northeast conquering the Massagetae, a nomadic tribe living in Central Asia northeast of Caspia. The Persians were victorious at the first exchanges of arms. But in the second battle, the battle of 529 BC, they were defeated and Cyrus - the ruler of the empire that the world had existed at that time - was killed.

Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses II. Cambyses defeated the Massagetae in the ensuing battle, found his father's body and reburied it in the bazaar of gadae, the capital of Ancient Persia. Then Cambyses sent an army to invade Egypt so as to unite all the regions of the old Middle East in one empire.

Cyrus is clearly a leader who has expertise in the military field. But that's only one side of a human being. What stands out even more, perhaps, is the policy of how he is governed. He is known to be very tolerant of local religions and their customs. And he always kept aloof from the dark and vicious attitude of conquerors. The Babylonians, for example, even more clearly the Assyrians, had the heart to kill thousands of people and expel all the inhabitants who feared they would revolt. For example, when the Babylonians conquered Judea in 586 BC, they brought the Judeans to Babylon. But fifty years later, after Cyrus had conquered Babylon, he gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland. Were it not for Cyrus, it seems the Jews would have perished as an isolated group in the 5th century B.C. Cyrus' decision in this regard may have had a political motivation: however, there is little doubt that he was a humane ruler of his time. Even the Greeks, who had long considered the nation of the Persian Empire to be the greatest threat to their independence, never ceased to regard Cyrus as a truly admirable ruler.

So well did Cyrus have carried out his duties that even after the death of the Peria Empire continued to expand its territory. This lasted about 200 years until it was conquered by Alexander the great. For most of the two centuries, the area controlled by the Persians enjoyed peace and prosperity.

Alexander's conquest by no means marked the end of the Persian Empire. After Alexander's death, one of his generals, Seleucus I Nicator, managed to dominate Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran, thereby establishing the Seleucid Empire. However, foreign rule over Iran did not last long. In the middle of the 3rd century BC, a revolt broke out against Seleucid rule, under the leadership of Arsaves I who considered himself descended from the Achaemeneids (dynasty of Cyrus). An empire founded by the Arsaces - known as the Parthian Empire - eventually ruled Iran and Mesopotamia. In 224 AD the Arsacid ruler was replaced by the Persian dynasty, the Sassanids, who also claimed descent from the Archaeminid, and whose empire lasted more than four centuries. Even today Cyrus is honored in Iran as the founder of the Persian state.

The career of the great Cyrus is an important example of a turning point in history. Culture first grew in Sumer, around 3000 years BC. For more than twenty-five centuries the Sumerians and the various Semitic peoples who succeeded them (such as the Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians) became the center of civilization. Throughout that time, Mesopotamia was the richest and most culturally advanced country in the world (with the exception of Egypt which was roughly on an equal footing). But Cyrus' career, which is arguably in the midst of recorded history, ended that chapter in world history. From then on, neither Mesopotamia nor Egypt were any longer the center of world culture, both culturally and politically.

Cyrus is important not only because he won many battles and conquered many lands. Of greater importance was the fact that the empire he founded steadily changed the political structure of the old world.

The Persian Empire, despite its size and duration of existence, did not have as great an impact on history as the older Roman, British or Chinese Empires had. But, taking into account the importance of Cyrus one must remember that he had accomplished something that might never have happened without her presence. In 620 BC (a generation before Cyrus was born) no one would have guessed that within a century the entire old world would be under the rule of a completely obscure tribe from southwest Iran. Even with hindsight, it doesn't appear that the Persian Empire was one of the most significant empires in history because social and economic conditions could have made it so big sooner or later. So, Cyrus is one of those rare people who markedly changed the course of history.