Influence on Eastern and Western civilizations to resettle and rebuild
Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism. British historian
Charles Freeman suggests that "In scope and extent his achievements [Cyrus] ranked far above that of the Macedonian king, Alexander, who was to demolish the [Achaemenid] empire in the 320s but fail to provide any stable alternative." Cyrus has been a personal hero to many people, including
Thomas Jefferson,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and
David Ben-Gurion. The achievements of Cyrus the Great throughout antiquity are reflected in the way he is remembered today. His own nation, the Iranians, have regarded him as "The Father", the very title that had been used during the time of Cyrus himself, by the many nations that he conquered, as according to
Xenophon: Cyrus's standard, described as a golden eagle mounted upon a "lofty shaft", remained the official banner of the Achaemenids. The historian
Plutarch () tells that "the Persians, because Cyrus was hook-nosed, even to this day love hook-nosed men and consider them the most handsome". The Babylonians regarded him as "The Liberator", as they were offended by their previous ruler, Nabonidus, for committing sacrilege. The
Book of Ezra narrates a story of the first return of exiles in the first year of Cyrus, in which Cyrus proclaims: "All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD, the God of heaven, given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah."() Cyrus was distinguished equally as a
statesman and as a soldier. Due in part to the political infrastructure he created, the Achaemenid Empire endured long after his death. The rise of Persia under Cyrus's rule had a profound impact on the course of world history, including in forms of
Iranian philosophy,
literature and
religion. Many of the Iranian dynasties following the Achaemenid Empire and their kings saw themselves as the heirs to Cyrus the Great and have claimed to continue the line begun by Cyrus. However, there are different opinions among scholars whether this is also the case for the
Sassanid Dynasty.
Alexander the Great was himself infatuated with and admired Cyrus the Great, from an early age reading Xenophon's
Cyropaedia, which described Cyrus's heroism in battle and governance and his abilities as a king and a legislator. and colonial America. Many of the thinkers and rulers of
Classical Antiquity as well as the
Renaissance and
Enlightenment era, and the forefathers of the United States of America sought inspiration from Cyrus the Great through works such as
Cyropaedia. Thomas Jefferson, for example, owned two copies of
Cyropaedia, one with parallel Greek and Latin translations on facing pages showing substantial Jefferson markings that signify the amount of influence the book has had on drafting the
United States Declaration of Independence. According to Professor
Richard Nelson Frye, Cyrus—whose abilities as conqueror and administrator Frye says are attested by the longevity and vigor of the Achaemenid Empire—held an almost mythic role among the Persian people "similar to that of
Romulus and Remus in Rome or
Moses for the Israelites", with a story that "follows in many details the stories of hero and conquerors from elsewhere in the ancient world." Frye writes, "He became the epitome of the great qualities expected of a ruler in antiquity, and he assumed heroic features as a conqueror who was tolerant and magnanimous as well as brave and daring. His personality as seen by the Greeks influenced them and Alexander the Great, and, as the tradition was transmitted by the Romans, may be considered to influence our thinking even now."
Administration and politics Satrapy system Cyrus founded the empire as a multi-
state empire governed by four capital states;
Pasargadae,
Babylon,
Susa and
Ecbatana. He allowed a certain amount of regional autonomy in each state, in the form of a
satrapy system. A satrapy was an administrative unit, usually organized on a geographical basis. A '
satrap' (governor) was the
vassal king, who administered the region, a 'general' supervised military recruitment and ensured order, and a 'state secretary' kept the official records. The general and the state secretary reported directly to the satrap as well as the central government. During his reign, Cyrus maintained control over a vast region of conquered kingdoms, achieved through retaining and expanding the satrapies. Further organization of newly conquered territories into provinces ruled by satraps was continued by Cyrus's successor,
Darius the Great.
Military strategy Cyrus's empire was based on
tribute and
conscripts from the many parts of his realm. Through his military savvy, Cyrus created an organized army including the
Immortals unit, consisting of 10,000 highly trained soldiers. Cyrus's conquests began a new era in the age of empire building, where a vast
superstate, comprising many dozens of countries, races, religions, and languages, were ruled under a single administration headed by a central government. This system lasted for centuries, and was retained both by the invading
Seleucid dynasty during their control of Persia, and later Iranian dynasties including the
Parthians and
Sasanians. , Germany
Infrastructure projects Cyrus has been known for his innovations in building projects; he further developed the technologies that he found in the conquered cultures and applied them in building the palaces of Pasargadae. He was also famous for his love of gardens; the recent excavations in his capital city has revealed the existence of the Pasargadae
Persian Garden and a network of irrigation
canals. Pasargadae was a place for two magnificent palaces surrounded by a majestic royal park and vast formal gardens; among them was the four-quartered wall gardens of "
Paradisia" with over 1000 meters of channels made out of carved
limestone, designed to fill small basins at every 16 meters and water various types of wild and domestic
flora. The design and concept of Paradisia were exceptional and have been used as a model for many ancient and modern parks, ever since. He also formed an innovative
postal system throughout the empire, based on several relay stations called
Chapar Khaneh. In 1658, while the
Protectorate of Cromwell ruled Britain, the English physician and philosopher Sir
Thomas Browne penned a discourse entitled
The Garden of Cyrus, in which Cyrus is depicted as an archetypal wise ruler. However, despite being featured in the title, Cyrus was not a main focus of Browne's work. "Cyrus the elder, brought up in Woods and Mountains, when time and power enabled, pursued the dictate of his education, and brought the treasures of the field into rule and circum-scription. So nobly beautifying the hanging Gardens of Babylon, that he was also thought to be the author thereof." The use of the name
Kuruş as a currency denomination for coinage goes back to the 6th century BC, dating to the time of the
Croeseid, the world's first gold coin, originally minted by King
Croesus of
Lydia. The Croeseid was later
continued to be minted and spread in a wide geographical area by Cyrus the Great ( ), the founder of the
Achaemenid Empire, who defeated King Croesus and conquered Lydia with the
Battle of Thymbra in 547 BC. Cyrus (Kūruš) made the Croeseid the standard gold coin of his vast empire, using the same
lion and bull design, but with a reduced weight (8.06 grams, instead of the standard 10.7 grams of the original version issued by King Croesus) due to the need for larger amounts of these coins, for a much larger population.
Human rights and multiculturalism Cyrus Cylinder at the
British Museum, 2010 One of the few surviving sources of information that can be dated directly to Cyrus's time is the Cyrus Cylinder (), a document in the form of a clay cylinder inscribed in
Akkadian cuneiform. It had been placed in the foundations of the
Esagila (the temple of
Marduk in
Babylon) as a
foundation deposit following the Persian conquest in 539 BC. It was discovered in 1879 and is kept today in the
British Museum in London. The text of the cylinder denounces the deposed Babylonian king
Nabonidus as impious and portrays Cyrus as pleasing to the chief god
Marduk. It describes how Cyrus had improved the lives of the citizens of Babylonia,
repatriated displaced peoples and restored temples and cult sanctuaries. Although not mentioned specifically in the text, the repatriation of the
Jews from their "
Babylonian captivity" has been interpreted as part of this general policy. In the 1970s, the
Shah of Iran adopted the Cyrus cylinder as a political symbol, using it "as a central image in his celebration of 2500 years of Iranian monarchy", and asserting that it was "the first human rights charter in history". This view has been disputed by some as "rather anachronistic" and tendentious, as the modern concept of human rights would have been quite alien to Cyrus's contemporaries and is not mentioned by the cylinder. The cylinder has, nonetheless, become seen as part of Iran's cultural identity. The British Museum describes the cylinder as "an instrument of ancient Mesopotamian propaganda" that "reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms."
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, has stated that the cylinder was "the first attempt we know about running a society, a state with different nationalities and faiths – a new kind of statecraft." He explained that "It has even been described as the first declaration of human rights, and while this was never the intention of the document – the modern concept of human rights scarcely existed in the ancient world – it has come to embody the hopes and aspirations of many."
Religion and philosophy Zoroastrian presence in Achaemenid state affairs behind him, as he receives the submission of the Median king
Astyages (18th-century tapestry) French Iranologist
Pierre Briant wrote that, given the poor information we have, "it seems quite reckless to try to reconstruct what the religion of Cyrus might have been." It is also debated whether he was a
Zoroastrian or whether Zoroastrianism only becomes involved as the Achaemenid state religion after his lifetime. The evidence in favour of it comes from some of the names of members of Cyrus's family, and similarities between the description of
Yahweh in
Isaiah 40–48 (which was after
Isaiah came into contact with a Persian propagandist under Cyrus's administration who was Zoroastrian) and that of
Ahura Mazda in the
Gathas. Against the thesis is how Cyrus permitted total freedom of religion and provided funding for the establishment of their temples and other holy sites, as well as a possible late-date for the activity of the Iranian prophet
Zoroaster, who founded Zoroastrianism.
Tolerance and freedom of religion The policies of Cyrus with respect to treatment of minority religions are documented in many historical accounts, particularly in Babylonian and Jewish sources. Cyrus had a general policy of religious tolerance throughout his vast empire. Whether this was a new policy or the continuation of policies followed by the
Babylonians and
Assyrians (as American historian
Lester Grabbe maintains) is disputed. He brought peace to the Babylonians and is said to have kept his army away from the temples and restored the statues of the
Babylonian gods to their sanctuaries.
Personal faith and practices of Cyrus Information about religion and ritual during the reign of Cyrus is also available from the
Cyropaedia of
Xenophon, the
Histories of
Herodotus, and inscriptions, though these were written in later periods and so must be used carefully. The
Cyrus Cylinder was composed in the name of Cyrus with him as the first-person speaker. The Cylinder is highly religious and is framed around the interventions of the Babylonian national god
Marduk. It is Marduk who is praised in the outset of the text and whose direct intervention is thought to be responsible for what happened in recent history, and it is Marduk who summons Cyrus for the purpose of righting the wrongs of his predecessor
Nabonidus. Furthermore, Cyrus offers respect not only to the cult of Marduk, but also to local cults. One inscription from
Uruk states "(Cyrus) loves
Esangil and
Ezida" while another from
Ur mentions that he "returned the gods to their shrines." Another from
Babylon or
Sippar says that unlike Nabonidus, Cyrus provided proper and even increased the sacrifices for the gods. Additional reliable information may come from the funerary customs around the
tomb of Cyrus, which indicates a privileged cult honouring the Iranian god
Mithra. Some have also identified the figure depicted in the bas-relief from
Pasargadae as Mithra, further indicating the reverence of Cyrus for this deity. Additional evidence further indicates the connection between Cyrus and Mithra.
Liberation of the Jewish people The treatment of the
Jewish people by Cyrus during their
exile in Babylon after the Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the
Kingdom of Judah is reported in the
Hebrew Bible (or
Old Testament). Cyrus is represented positively and as an
agent of Yahweh, even though he is said to "not know" Yahweh (Isaiah 45:4–5). The
Ketuvim ends in
Second Chronicles with the decree of Cyrus, which returned the exiles to the Land of Israel from Babylon along with a commission to rebuild the
Temple in Jerusalem in light of
Solomon's Temple having been destroyed by Babylonian armies. Thus saith Cyrus,
king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth hath the , the
God of
Heaven given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in
Jerusalem, which is in
Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all His people – the , his God, be with him – let him go there. – () This edict is also fully reproduced in the
Book of Ezra. In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: "Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits; with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. Also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; and you shall put them in the house of God." – () ,
Israel, 2009 The
Jews honored him as a dignified and righteous king. In one Biblical passage,
Isaiah refers to him as
Messiah () (), making him the only
gentile to be so referred. Elsewhere in
Isaiah, God is described as saying, "I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says God Almighty." () As the text suggests, Cyrus did ultimately release the nation of Israel from its exile without compensation or tribute. These particular passages (Isaiah 40–55, often referred to as
Deutero-Isaiah) are believed by most modern
critical scholars to have been added by another author toward the end of the Babylonian exile
Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, relates the traditional view of the Jews regarding the prediction of Cyrus in Isaiah in his
Antiquities of the Jews, book 11, chapter 1: and Cyrus before the Idol Bel While Cyrus is praised in the
Tanakh ( and ), there was Jewish criticism of him after he was lied to by the
Cuthites, who wanted to halt the building of the
Second Temple. They accused the Jews of conspiring to rebel, so Cyrus in turn stopped the construction, which would not be completed until 515 BC, during the reign of
Darius I. According to the Bible, it was King
Artaxerxes who was convinced to stop the construction of the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 4:7–24). The historical nature of this decree has been challenged. Professor Lester L Grabbe argues that there was no decree but that there was a policy that allowed exiles to return to their homelands and rebuild their temples. He also argues that the archaeology suggests that the return was a "trickle", taking place over perhaps decades, resulting in a maximum population of perhaps 30,000.
Philip R. Davies called the authenticity of the decree "dubious", citing Grabbe and adding that arguing against "the authenticity of Ezra 1.1–4 is J. Briend, in a paper given at the Institut Catholique de Paris on 15 December 1993, who denies that it resembles the form of an official document but reflects rather biblical prophetic idiom." Mary Joan Winn Leith believes that the decree in Ezra might be authentic and along with the Cylinder that Cyrus, like earlier rulers, was through these decrees trying to gain support from those who might be strategically important, particularly those close to Egypt which he wished to conquer. She also wrote that "appeals to Marduk in the cylinder and to Yahweh in the biblical decree demonstrate the Persian tendency to co-opt local religious and political traditions in the interest of imperial control."
Theorized allusion in Islamic scripture In the 19th century, a number of prominent
Indian Muslim scholars began theorizing that Cyrus the Great is the individual mentioned in the
Quran by the name
Dhu al-Qarnayn, who is described as travelling west and east (towards the "
setting and rising places of the Sun") and erecting a large barrier to separate a troubled people from "
Ya'juj and Ma'juj" in exchange for tribute, with this barrier destined to keep them sealed until their release signals the
end of the world and the
Day of Judgement. It was first promoted by
Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) and then by
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888–1958), subsequently generating wider acceptance among some Muslim communities over the years. This theory had been proposed in 1855 by the German philologist , but it was largely dismissed in the
Western world. Most Western scholars of religion have instead lent credence to more popular theories in traditional
Islamic mythology that identify Dhu al-Qarnayn as either the Greek king
Alexander the Great or a certain
pre-Islamic Arabian king. == See also ==