Cyrus
Cyrus names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 2 of them are described by more than one encyclopedia.
Cyrus si'rus, king of Persia
Described by 3 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
surnamed THE YOUNGER, was son of Darius II., King of Persia, and Parysatis. In 407 B. c. he was made governor of the western provinces of Asia Minor. He was of ambitious temper, and was sentenced to death for plotting against his brother Artaxerxes on his accession to the throne, but was pardoned. ned. Still determined to be king himself, he raised an army, including a large body of Greek mercenaries, crossed the Taurus, marched down the Euphrates, and at Cunaxa encountered the army of his brother, when he was defeated and slain, 401 b. c. Xenophon, who had served as a volunteer among the Greeks, conducted their retreat, and wrote an account of the expedition.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
See page 63. The Younger. The son of Darius Nothus and the brother of Artaxerxes, the latter succeeding to the throne at the death of Nothus. Cyrus was appointed to the command of Lydia and the sea-coasts, where he fomented rebellion and levied troops under various pretenses. At length he took the field with an army of 100,000 Barbarians and 13,000 Greeks under the command of Clearchus . Artaxerxes met him with 900,000 men near Cunaxa. The engagement ended See page 63. Calliope. fatally for Cyrus, who was killed, в. c. 401.
Cyrus surnamed THE ELDER
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
surnamed THE ELDER, founder 1 of the Persian monarchy, was son of Cambyses, a Persian noble, and of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of Media. The principal exploits attributed to him are the incitement to a revolt of 16-Vol. III-Cyc the Persians and consequent defeat of Astyages and the Medes, when he became king, 559 B. C.; the conquest of Lydia and capture of Crœsus; the siege and capture capture of of Babylon Ba in in 538, 5 and the invasion of Scythia, where he was defeated and slain by Tomyris, queen of the Massagetæ, 529. He was interred at Psargardæ.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A king of Persia, son of Cambyses , and Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of Media. Xenophon has written the life of Cyrus, and delineates him as a brave and virtuous prince, and often puts in his mouth many of the sayings of Socrates .
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The broad story these books tell still stands, but the dates have been tightened by cuneiform evidence such as the Nabonidus Chronicle and the Cyrus Cylinder: Babylon fell in October 539 BC rather than Collier's "538," and Cyrus died in 530 BC, not 529, with 559 BC now read as his accession in Anshan and 550 as the year he finished off Astyages. Modern historians treat the picturesque endings as unproven — the tale of death at the hands of Tomyris of the Massagetae comes from Herodotus, and other ancient writers give other versions — and they read Xenophon's Cyropaedia, which the 1900 volume calls a "life of Cyrus," as a didactic romance rather than biography. Two small corrections: the Ionian Greek cities were reduced by Cyrus's commander Harpagus rather than by the king in person, and the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger were drawn from many cities, not the "10,000 Spartans" of Aiton's account. His tomb at Pasargadae, which Collier's spells "Psargardæ," was excavated in the twentieth century and became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.
Written for this edition, 2026.