Achaemenid Persian Empire (Cyrus the Great, 550 BCE)

Things happened, and the rest is history

1. 01

   Cyrus overthrows Astyages and conquers Lydia

   Event

   What happened

   Around 550 BCE Cyrus II, king of Anshan in Persia, defeats the Median king Astyages and takes over the Median realm in western Iran. The Nabonidus Chronicle records that Astyages's army handed him over to Cyrus and that Cyrus took the royal treasure at Ecbatana. A few years later, in the mid 540s BCE (the exact year is debated), Cyrus defeats King Croesus of Lydia and takes the Lydian capital Sardis. Greek cities on the Aegean coast then come under Persian rule.

   ↓ The rest is history

   These conquests turned a small kingdom into a great power spanning Iran and Anatolia. They gave Cyrus the resources and the reputation for his next campaign, against Babylon in 539 BCE. The Persians kept much of the Median administration and court practice, and Medes served as officials and commanders. The conquest of the Greek cities of Ionia began the long contact between Persia and the Greek world. That contact led to the Ionian revolt of 499 BCE and the Persian Wars. By the time Cyrus died in 530 BCE, his realm reached from the Aegean to Central Asia.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryThe Nabonidus Chronicle. Babylonian chronicle, 6th century BCE. British Museum.Records Astyages's defeat by Cyrus and the taking of Ecbatana.
   2. PrimaryHerodotus. Histories 1.46-91. Greek prose history, c. 430 BCE.Greek account of Croesus, Lydia and the fall of Sardis.
   3. BookWaters, Matt. Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
2. 02

   Cyrus the abandoned child

   Origin story

   The legend

   King Astyages of Media dreams that his daughter's child will overthrow him. When the boy Cyrus is born, Astyages orders him killed. The servant who is given the task hands the baby to a herdsman, whose wife raises him as her own. Cyrus grows up, his identity is discovered, and in time he leads the Persians against his grandfather and takes the throne.

   ↓ The rest is history

   This tale is told by the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE. It closely resembles stories of exposed and rescued heroes told about Sargon of Akkad, Romulus and Moses, so it is probably a folk motif rather than a record of fact. Herodotus himself says he knew other versions. Cyrus's own Babylonian inscription, the Cyrus Cylinder, names his ancestors as kings of Anshan and says nothing of any Median grandfather. The Nabonidus Chronicle, a Babylonian text, records that Astyages's army handed him over to Cyrus, which matches a conquest around 550 BCE.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryHerodotus. Histories 1.107-130. Greek prose history, c. 430 BCE.
   2. PrimaryThe Nabonidus Chronicle. Babylonian chronicle, 6th century BCE. British Museum.Records Cyrus's defeat of Astyages and later the fall of Babylon.
   3. BookBriant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002.Standard survey that weighs the Greek and Near Eastern sources.
3. 03

   Cyrus and the first charter of human rights

   Popular belief

   The legend

   After taking Babylon, Cyrus is said to have issued the first declaration of human rights. It freed slaves, proclaimed religious freedom for all, and let the exiled peoples return home. The clay cylinder that carries it is often described as the world's first bill of rights.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The Cyrus Cylinder was found at Babylon in 1879 and is now in the British Museum. It is a foundation text in Akkadian, written in the tradition of Mesopotamian kings. It presents Cyrus as chosen by the god Marduk, says he restored statues and shrines to their cities, and mentions returning people who had been deported. It does not mention slavery or make any general declaration of rights. The description as a human rights charter dates mainly from the twentieth century. The Bible, in the Book of Ezra, separately credits Cyrus with allowing the Jewish exiles to rebuild their temple. The Cylinder does show a real policy of conciliating the gods and peoples of conquered lands.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryThe Cyrus Cylinder. Akkadian clay cylinder from Babylon, c. 539-530 BCE. British Museum, London.Cyrus presents himself as Marduk's chosen king and restorer of sanctuaries.
   2. BookFinkel, Irving, ed. The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013.Translation and essays on the text and its modern reputation.
   3. BookKuhrt, Amélie. The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period. London: Routledge, 2007.
4. 04

   The fall of Babylon by a diverted river

   Heroic tale

   The legend

   Cyrus besieges Babylon, whose walls seem impossible to storm. He digs channels to draw off the Euphrates, and his soldiers wade along the lowered riverbed into the city. The Babylonians are feasting at a festival and do not notice until the city is already taken.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Herodotus tells this story, and Xenophon gives a similar version. Babylonian sources tell a quieter tale. The Nabonidus Chronicle says Persian forces defeated the Babylonian army at Opis, then Sippar was taken without a fight, and Cyrus's general Gubaru entered Babylon in October 539 BCE. Cyrus himself arrived some weeks later. The Cyrus Cylinder also says he entered the city without a battle. The river story may echo the later experience of other sieges, or Greek ideas about how a great city could fall. Babylon's walls were never breached by force on this occasion.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryHerodotus. Histories 1.188-191. Greek prose history, c. 430 BCE.
   2. PrimaryThe Nabonidus Chronicle. Babylonian chronicle, 6th century BCE. British Museum.Describes the capture of Babylon in 539 BCE without a major battle.
   3. BookWaters, Matt. Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
5. 05

   Cambyses and the sacred Apis bull

   Folk tale

   The legend

   After conquering Egypt, the Persian king Cambyses goes mad. He stabs the sacred Apis bull in the thigh, mocks Egyptian gods, and kills his own brother and sister. He dies when his own sword wounds him in the same place as he wounded the bull.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The tale comes from Herodotus, who gathered Egyptian stories decades after Cambyses's death and shows a strong hostile bias against him. Evidence from Egypt tells another story. A burial of an Apis bull at Saqqara dated to Cambyses's reign appears to have been carried out properly. An inscription of the Egyptian official Udjahorresnet says Cambyses took an Egyptian royal title and supported the temple of Neith at Sais. Cambyses did die in 522 BCE on his way home, during a revolt, and the cause is unclear. The Behistun inscription of Darius says only that he died, possibly by his own hand.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryHerodotus. Histories 3.27-38. Greek prose history, c. 430 BCE.
   2. PrimaryStatue of Udjahorresnet. Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription, c. 520 BCE. Vatican Museums.A court official's account of Cambyses's respect for Egyptian cults.
   3. BookBriant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002.
6. 06

   Darius wins the throne by a horse's neigh

   Folk tale

   The legend

   After the death of Cambyses, seven Persian nobles who have overthrown a false king agree to choose the next ruler by letting their horses decide. Whoever's horse neighs first at sunrise will be king. Darius's groom secretly arranges for his horse to neigh first, and thunder and lightning seal the omen. Darius becomes king.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Herodotus tells this story as well. Darius's own account, the Behistun inscription carved into a cliff in western Iran, gives a different version. He says that a man named Gaumata falsely claimed to be Cambyses's brother Bardiya, and that Darius killed him and put down a series of rebellions in 522 to 521 BCE. Many modern scholars suspect that Darius's account is itself propaganda, and that the man he killed may really have been Bardiya. Darius was a member of a collateral branch of the Achaemenid family, so his need to justify his claim is clear. The inscription, in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, is among the longest of its age.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryHerodotus. Histories 3.84-87. Greek prose history, c. 430 BCE.
   2. PrimaryThe Behistun Inscription of Darius I. Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian rock inscription, c. 520 BCE, near Kermanshah, Iran.Darius's own account of Gaumata and the revolts.
   3. BookKent, Roland G. Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon. American Oriental Series 33. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1953.