by Matt Waters
Cyrus met Croesus’ army in Cappadocia (central Anatolia). Cyrus’ forces were augmented by his conquest of the Medes – which included contingents from northern and eastern Iran – as well as those areas through which Cyrus had marched to confront Croesus. Despite the Persian advantage in numbers, the fighting was inconclusive. With winter fast approaching, Croesus withdrew and disbanded his army, with every intention to resume hostilities in the spring. Cyrus made a surprising, and daring, maneuver: he did not disband his own army but instead pursued Croesus to the Lydian capital, Sardis. Cyrus took Croesus at unawares – as Herodotus puts it, “Cyrus came as his own messenger to Croesus” (1.79) – and defeated him in a pitched battle outside the city. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, Croesus then took refuge in Sardis, sent desperate pleas to his allies, and was besieged. Just a couple weeks later, some Persians scaled a part of the fortifications that the Lydians had deemed inaccessible, and it was by that route that Sardis was taken.
With the fall of Sardis and capture of Croesus, the Lydian kingdom also then fell. Cyrus was merely getting started, and the historian must again confront questions of chronology and sequence. If the Lydian campaign is dated to the mid-540s BCE, that leaves several years before the firmly dated conquest of Babylon in 539 – a conquest that we may assume was more than a year in the making, despite implications of Cyrus’ own testimony. The nascent Persian Empire, still a work in progress, was already a big place. Herodotus indicates (1.153) that, after the fall of Sardis, Cyrus intended to campaign personally against the Babylonians, the Bactrians, the Scythians, and the Egyptians. He delegated the remaining operations in western Asia Minor to subordinates.
In short order, some of the Lydians rebelled. One Pactyes, a Lydian to whom Cyrus had assigned the collection of tribute, instead hired mercenaries and marched on Sardis, where Cyrus’ appointee Tabalus (a Persian) had been left in charge. Entrusting local elites such as Pactyes with continued, important roles in the Empire’s administration was common later, and this episode suggests the practice began even under Cyrus. In this case, though, the appointment proved to be a mistake. When Cyrus learned of Pactyes’ revolt, he dispatched a Median named Mazares: his position reflects the elevated place that some Medes held in Persian administration, even outside the confines of Media itself. Pactyes fled to Cyme, a Greek city on the central western (i.e., Ionian) coast, from where he was passed on to various other Greek cities. The islanders of Chios were induced with a bribe to give him up (Hdt. 1.160).
The Mede Mazares fell ill and died shortly after Pactyes was captured, but not before he began the process of systematically punishing those cities that had helped Pactyes in his revolt. After Mazares died, the Mede Harpagus was sent to finish the job, a job that probably took several months, if not a few years. One by one Greek cities in Ionia were subjugated, some ruthlessly. This rather dark chapter in Greek history is not preserved in much detail, especially when contrasted with the successful resistance of the mainland Greeks against Xerxes’ invasion two generations later. This is understandably so, in light of the result during Cyrus’ reign: a complete Persian victory. If things had gone otherwise, instead of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Plataea, the western tradition would have perhaps celebrated the battles in west central and southwestern Anatolia, such as Priene, Magnesia, and Phocaea. But these cities were subjugated or destroyed by the Persians, and their territories incorporated into the Empire.
The fate of Croesus varies in ancient traditions. In Herodotus, he became a stock literary character (the wise advisor), a counselor to both Cyrus and his son Cambyses. An earlier tradition implies that Croesus was killed – or removed from the mortal world – during the sack of Sardis. Herodotus portrayed Cyrus intending to do just that, but Apollo’s intervention saved Croesus (1.87). The Greek poet Bacchylides (died c. 450 BCE) provided a dramatic rendering of Croesus’ intended suicide on a pyre, when the intervention of Zeus and Apollo removed him to the land of the Hyperboreans, a mythical people who dwelled far in the north. Croesus on the pyre occurs in both traditions, but Bacchylides’ version implies Croesus’ death, couched in divine “removal” to a magical place. Like Herodotus, a later tradition recorded by Justin (perhaps from Ctesias, Fragment 9e) also relates that Croesus was saved by Apollo and that Cyrus granted him territory in a city called Barene near Ecbatana.5
Cyrus in Eastern Iran and Central Asia
Herodotus’ assessment of Cyrus’ strategy after the conquest of Lydia is probably correct. It is easy to envision Cyrus placing higher priority on other areas while leaving mop-up operations in Anatolia to subordinates. Among these other important areas were eastern Iran and Central Asia, the least known but certainly not the least significant areas for the Persians’ rise. It is difficult to say much beyond outlining the strategic importance of these areas to the Empire. The evidence is sparse, and the chronology of Cyrus’ activities there is impossible to ascertain. Many of the peoples in the extreme northeast were nomadic, but agricultural settlements were widespread. Archaeological surveys have revealed extensive irrigation projects in oases of the Amu Darya (Oxus) River basin. Various individuals and groups from these regions figure prominently in Achaemenid political and military organization subsequently. Bactrian and Scythian forces, especially their cavalry, were renowned throughout Achaemenid history. Cyrus’ son, Bardiya, governed the satrapy of Bactria; Darius I’s father, Hystaspes, held an important command in Parthia during the crisis of 522 BCE. Other examples abound, but it is impossible to organize them into a narrative. The eastern territories of the Empire figure most prominently in the source material concerning Alexander of Macedon’s conquests there in the late 330s and 320s BCE; these territories’ political importance during that turbulent time is viewed as characteristic for the entire Achaemenid period.
The regions of Bactria, Hyrcania, Parthia, and Scythia were all incorporated into the Empire at the time of Darius’ accession in 522. A later Roman source, Justin (1.7.2), implies that the submission of these northern regions at the time of the Median conquest must have mainly been a formality, as they all subsequently caused Cyrus a great deal of hard campaigning. Further, both Herodotus’ and Ctesias’ versions set Cyrus’ death in the extreme northeast – with the implication being that he campaigned in those regions to the end.
Cyrus’ Conquest of Babylonia
For Cyrus’ conquest of Babylonia we are able to privilege Near Eastern sources once again, but they present their own interpretive issues. Foremost among these sources are the Nabonidus Chronicle (part of the Babylonian Chronicle series noted previously), the famous Cyrus Cylinder, and the so-called Verse Account of Nabonidus. The latter two were commissioned by Cyrus and present his conquest in an idealized manner.
We know from Nabonidus’ inscriptions and other Babylonian evidence that Nabonidus himself had been away from Babylon for ten years (c. 553–543 BCE) at the oasis in Teima in northern Arabia. This surprising absence from Babylon, governed in the meantime by Nabonidus’ son Bel-shar-usur (or Belshazzar, the Hebrew version of his name from the Book of Daniel 5), has been interpreted in a number of ways. Some associate it with Nabonidus’ patronage of the moon god, prominent at Teima. Nabonidus’ devotion to him was especially evident in Harran in northwestern Mesopotamia. Because of this, Nabonidus has often been portrayed in a negative light, sometimes even as crazed lunatic. That portrayal was no doubt augmented by the resentment of the priesthoods of other Babylonian deities, if they viewed their sanctuaries as receiving short shrift. It has also been heavily influenced by Cyrus’ propaganda and has been tempered only in recent scholarship. An assessment of the advantages gained from Babylonian control of trade routes running through the northern Arabian peninsula has encouraged modern scholars to reevaluate Nabonidus’ strategy and the virtues of his efforts there. Nevertheless, his ten-year absence from the city continues to raise numerous questions about his rule and popularity in Babylonia itself. Nabonidus’ own inscriptions follow the age-old Mesopotamian pattern of th
e pious king, one concerned for and active in the building and maintenance of divine sanctuaries. These are some of the very concerns, also formulaic but of utmost importance, expressed by Cyrus in the Cyrus Cylinder.
The preliminaries of the Persian-Babylonian conflict are opaque. It is difficult to understand Nabonidus’ extended absence from Babylon if he viewed the Persians as a serious threat during that time. The Babylonians, of course, would have been well-informed of Cyrus’ activities: his conquests of the Medes, Urartu, the Lydians, and other regions. It is similarly difficult to link Nabonidus’ return to Babylon circa 543 as attributable to concerns about rising Persian power. There is no evidence for such a contention, but it is not hard to imagine a growing sense of unease in Babylonia.
The Nabonidus Chronicle reports that during the summer of 539 the cult statues of gods from various Babylonian cities were taken to Babylon, presumably as a precaution against an imminent Persian attack. Cyrus, on the other hand, implied that Nabonidus’ removal of the gods was impious, and Cyrus celebrates his return of those gods to their own cities in his own inscription (Cyrus Cylinder, lines 30–32).6 As we see even in modern times, it is all about the message. In late September or early October of 539 BCE, a major battle was fought at Opis, north of Babylon, one that resulted in a Persian victory. On October 10 the city of Sippar was captured, and on October 12 Cyrus entered Babylon peacefully and in triumph. Nabonidus was captured. His subsequent fate the chronicle does not reveal; in the Cyrus Cylinder it is noted only that Nabonidus was delivered to Cyrus (line 17). Another Babylonian text – the so-called Dynastic Prophecy, written during the Seleucid period – suggests that Nabonidus was exiled.7 The Dynastic Prophecy finds echo in Berossus’ account (Fragment 10a): the defeated Babylonian king gave himself up before a protracted siege and received territory in Carmania (modern Kerman, in southern Iran), where he eventually died.
Let us consider Cyrus’ own version of the Babylonian conquest as given in the Cyrus Cylinder, the longest (by far) inscription that we have that was commissioned by Cyrus himself. The text is inscribed on a clay barrel cylinder (roughly 10 inches long and 4 inches thick), a standard foundation inscription of the type used in Mesopotamia for centuries (Figure 3.2). Foundation inscriptions were dedicated to the gods and deposited as an offering within the foundation or walls of sanctuaries; historians thus conclude that such texts were written for the gods. It is understood, however, that the information contained in these inscriptions, formulaic as it usually was, was also distributed or proclaimed in other ways. The Nabonidus Chronicle (column iii, lines 18–20) refers to a proclamation of Cyrus read to all the people of Babylon. This is perhaps not a word-for-word rendering of what was inscribed on the Cyrus Cylinder, but it is reasonable to assume that the essence was the same: the previous king Nabonidus was unstable and impious; the god Marduk’s chosen agent Cyrus was given victory in order to restore peace and harmony, especially the reinstitution of divine offerings and normal workings of his cult; the abandoned sanctuaries would be restored and the gods who dwelled therein returned, with full favors and honors; the displaced peoples would be allowed to return home; and the new king, blessed by the gods, would restore the entire city. The Cyrus Cylinder (line 18) offers a sample of the idealized conqueror entering his new city: “The people of Babylon in their entirety, the whole of Sumer and Akkad, the princes and the governors, all knelt in submission, they kissed his (Cyrus’) feet, and their faces brightened.”
Figure 3.2 Cyrus Cylinder, Babylon. © The Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, NY.
Images of Cyrus
One result of Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon was the return of Jewish exiles who had been deported to Babylonia, the so-called Babylonian diaspora, after Nebuchadnezzar’s sack of Jerusalem in 587–586 BCE. Jewish tradition also suggests that it was Cyrus who was responsible for the rebuilding of the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem, which had been razed during Nebuchadnezzar’s sack. These dramatic changes from the Jewish experience under Babylonian rule explain why Cyrus has such a glowing reputation in Jewish tradition. Indeed, in Second(Deutero)-Isaiah Cyrus is referred to as Yahweh’s shepherd (44.28) and his anointed (45.1), the messiah. Isaiah prophesied that Yahweh would take Cyrus by the hand and lead him to victory over all nations; this is reminiscent of Marduk’s role in the elevation of Cyrus (Cyrus Cylinder, lines 11–19).
The Book of Ezra (1.2–4 and 6.2–5) contains notice of a proclamation by Cyrus, found during the time of Darius I in the archives of Ecbatana, that authorized the rebuilding of Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem:
In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: “Concerning the temple in Jerusalem, let it be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought … let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.”
(excerpted from the Aramaic version of Ezra 6.3–4)8
How much of the proclamation is historical is difficult to say; the notation that the expenses will come from the royal treasury is surprising. In any case, there is no traceable action of the rebuilding itself until Darius I’s second year. Thus, the proclamation may have been anachronistically attributed to Cyrus’ time, because it coincides with the picture presented elsewhere of the Empire’s founder. If historical, it is unlikely that this was an isolated incident, that Cyrus made such special provisions only for the Jews of Babylon, though it may seem like it based on the limited evidence.
Cyrus’ rise in both the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions is placed in prophetic context: he fulfills both Yahweh’s and Marduk’s purposes for their chosen people. Such an image, and its consistent application, was not a coincidence; it was carefully tailored by the Persian conquerors to justify their takeover. Cyrus’ victory and the dispensations granted to the Jews fit well within a rubric of overarching tolerance, and this has influenced his image even to the present; among specialists, Cyrus’ motives are generally understood as more practical than altruistic.9 The return of gods (the cult statues) to various sanctuaries throughout Greater Mesopotamia was also good policy, one that followed age-old Mesopotamian patterns. Cyrus’ return of gods and restoration of sanctuaries simultaneously manifest and entreat divine favor.
Cyrus in the Greek Traditions
Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (“The Education of Cyrus”) is the most admiring of our sources for Cyrus but is also in many ways the least useful for narrative history. The Cyropaedia is more romance than history, although it is frequently cited for what it reveals about Persian culture and society as well as about preeminent Persians who figured importantly in the Empire’s history. Xenophon’s idealized representation of Cyrus’ life and reign – Cyrus in effect becomes what in Plato’s philosophy would be called the philosopher king – is often impossible to reconcile with the mainstream historical record. Cyrus is the ideal ruler, whom Xenophon uses as a vehicle to explore questions of leadership and government, an ongoing conversation among Greek writers of the Classical period.
Herodotus is our main Greek source, and his version of Cyrus’ origins warrants summary here. Notably, Herodotus acknowledges that he knows three other stories about Cyrus (1.95), but he has chosen to relay a version “based on what some Persians say, those who do not wish to glorify the details of Cyrus’ life but rather to tell the real story.” If Herodotus considered the version he gave as the least exaggerated of the four, one may wonder how over-the-top the other three were. For such a monumental figure, there were clearly many stories in circulation.
In Herodotus, dreams and portents heralded any significant event. The Median king Astyages had portentous dreams that involved his daughter Mandane urinating so copiously that she flooded not only Ecbatana but also all of Asia. This frightened Astyages, so that when Mandane was of marriageable age he refused to give her to any prominent Mede. Astyages staved off the perceived threat by marrying Mandane to a Persian named Cambyses, “of a noble house and of mild disposition, though he (Astyages) considered him beneath a Mede even of middle rank�
�� (1.107). A subsequent dream alarmed Astyages even more: a vine grew forth from Mandane’s private parts and spread over all Asia. There was not much ambiguity there, but Astyages consulted his priests, the dream interpreters, who informed him that any offspring of Mandane would become king and be a threat to him. Astyages summoned the pregnant Mandane home and charged one of his nobles, a man named Harpagus, to destroy the child as soon as it was born. Harpagus in turn gave the job to Mithridates, a humble herdsman, but Mitradates instead exchanged the newborn Cyrus for his own stillborn child, and Mitradates and his wife Spako raised Cyrus as their own son.
This story is another manifestation of an age-old motif of the legendary hero’s birth: the child exposed, or of humble origins, who rises to greatness. The story is often called the Sargon Legend, after the birth story of the king Sargon of Akkad (reigned c. 2340–2284 BCE), and associated with many other famous people including the biblical Moses, and Romulus and Remus in the Roman tradition.10 Cyrus’ true identity was revealed when as a boy of ten he was chosen king by the other boys during a game and, in acting the part, he whipped a malcontent who happened to be the son of a Median notable named Artembares. This was a scandal. In questioning the young Cyrus about the incident, Astyages realized he was speaking to his trueborn grandson. The initial omen of Astyages’ dream about Mandane, that her offspring would be a king, was presumed fulfilled through Cyrus’ playacting the part of king with the other boys. The consequences of this miscalculation have been relayed above: Cyrus ultimately triumphed over Astyages and took his place.