Cyrus

si'rus, king of Persia. Herodotus gives many incidents of his early life that rest on doubtful authority. He was a prince of Persia, then tributary to Media. In 559 B. C. he led a revolt against the authority of the Medes and established an independent Persian kingdom. Later he made war on the Medes and turned the tables, making Media a tributary state of Persia. Babylon, Syria, and Asia Minor were added to the Persian domains. The Hebrews remember Cyrus kindly because the over throw of Babylon released them from a long captivity and permitted their return to Palestine. The Greeks had little cause to bless his memory; for he subdued the Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor and replaced the mild rule of the Lydian Croesus by Persian despotism. He laid the foundation of the great Persian Empire that later absorbed Egypt. It extended northward and eastward until it embraced Asia from the Hellespont to the Indus. Cyrus is to be remembered as having founded the world power that preceded the still greater empire of Alexander. He well deserves the name of Cyrus the Great. He lost his life 529 B. C. in an expedition against the Scythians, a warlike people northeast of the Caspian Sea. See Croesus; Hebrews; Babylon

Cyrus the Younger (424-401 B. C.), a prince of Persia. He was the younger brother of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. He was pardoned once, it is claimed, for attempting to supplant his brother, and was sent to rule Asia Minor. Here he interested himself in Grecian politics, taking the part of Sparta. In 401 B. C. he enlisted 10,000 Spartans, and with a large force of Asiatic allies advanced through Asia Minor on Babylon. At the battle of Cunaxa, near the great capital, his army was defeated and he was slain. The upward march, the stand of the ten thousand, and their marvelous retreat are the theme of Xenophon's Anabasis.