Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian Empire, thus building largest empire, the world had yet seen.
Cyrus was born between 590 and 580 BCE, either in Media or, more probably, in Persis, the modern Fārs province of Iran.
The dreams of Astyages.
Cyrus’ grandfather Astyages, the king of the Medes and overlord of the Persians, married Cyrus’ grandmother, as part of a peace treaty.
They had a daughter, named Mandane.
Astyages was deeply disturbed by a dream about his daughter, urinating so much, the city was drowned and eventually flooded all of Asia.
Astyages , however disturbed, did not understand what the dream meant, but felt it was significant enough to consult some Magi, a member of a hereditary priestly class, among the ancient Medes and Persians.
The Magi interpreted it, to mean that one of her children would be a world ruler, signifying death or ruin, for Astyages.
Astyages , afraid for his kingdom, gave his daughter in marriage to his vassal in Persis, a prince called Cambyses ,who he believed was of less distinction and therefore, less of a threat.
However, Astyages had a subsequent dream, even more disturbing.
In it, Mandane,came forth, from a vine which covered all of Asia, which interpreters conveyed to the king, the meaning of this vision, meant her child will rule, instead of Astyages.
Astyages, then summoned his daughter, who was at that time pregnant, with Cyrus, back to court from Persia, and kept her under guard because he wanted to destroy the child who came from her.
Astyages then ordered Harpagus, his general and chief adviser, to personally have the child slain.
Harpagus, afraid to personally kill a child of the royal family, took Cyrus to a herdsman, to abandon him in the mountains, so Cyrus would die from exposure.
However, since the herdsman had just lost a child, he switched Cyrus, with his dead son and raised Cyrus as his own.
When Cyrus was 10 years old, events happened which caused Astyages to discover who he was.
Astyages was pleased that the child was alive, but angry with Harpagus.
In verifying his actions, Harpagus admitted he did not directly kill the child, and had not personally confirmed the death.
As punishment the king had Harpagus’ son killed and made him eat his own son, at a banquet.
Harpagus had the presence of mind, to not blame the king for acting wrong.
Astyages, still shaken by his dreams, called in the Magi, to determine what to do with the child, Cyrus, they decided, Astyages‘ dream had been fulfilled and he had nothing to worry about.
The child was returned to his parents. in Persia.
Astyages was a cruel leader, so because of this and to avenge his son’s death, Harpagus offered, to support Cyrus in a bid for the throne.
Harpagus would be killed, if the king found out, so he devised a method of secretly sending information, by hiding a letter inside a dead rabbit and disguised the messenger, as a hunter.
The ball now lay in Cyrus‘ court, and he was in charge of Persian army.
To convince them to revolt, he made them spend one day cutting a field of thorn bushes, and the next day relaxing at a banquet.
He then asked which one the army preferred.
Since the banquet was obviously better, Cyrus then asked, why they remained slaves to the Medes (modern day Turkey) when with a little work, they could have luxury .
Astyages heard of Cyrus‘ actions and ordered him, to appear before him.
Astyages then prepared for war, unsuspecting of the plot, which had been made, so he put Harpagus in charge of the Median army.
Cyrus, revolted against his maternal grandfather and overlord.
Astyages marched against the rebel, but his army deserted him and surrendered to Cyrus, in 550 BC.
This made the neighboring King of Lydia, Croesus, concerned with the growing power of Persia.
The dream of Croesus
Croesus had a dream his son would be killed by an iron spear, which in his arrogance, Croesus thinks he can prevent.
Taking matters into his own hands, Croesus provoked a situation, which in 547 BC, caused the mighty Cyrus to turn his attention towards one of the wealthiest kingdoms in the world.
These are the ruins of Sardis, the capital of Lydia, in what is now Turkey.
The Persians were hitting back against a troublesome rival, but they were also following the money, because the Lydians were rich.
Gold and Silver were the source of their vast fortune, because a river bed of the Pactolus, which in ancient times, was a stream running with very rich gold and silver deposits, which the Lydians learned to refine and turn into valuable coins, that circulated all around that part of Asia.
Croesus’s gold coins were stamped with symbols of power and strength – the lion and the bull.
Other cultures, had currencies before this age.
They’d had a bronze, or silver, or even rare seashells.
But what the Lydians did for the first time, was produce gold coins of a reliable weight and purity.
Even today when people are frightened about the banks and governments, they invest in gold.
Well, it started here.
The fate of King Croesus, now lay at the mercy of the Persian leader – Cyrus the Great.
So when the invaders came, they knew exactly who they were looking for.
Croesus
Croesus, the king of Lydia. He may have been the richest man in the world, but now as he tried to hide with his son, his great wealth was putting his life in danger
Cyrus to raised an army and attacked Croesus, though the initial battle was intense, neither side won.
Since Cyrus did not attack the next day, Croesus decided to return to his kingdom and better prepare for war, the next year.
Cyrus, suspecting what Croesus would do, followed Croesus, so fast ,he had no warning, and could not get support from his allies.
Cyrus knew that Croesus’ Lydian army primarily rode on ode on horseback, with long lances.
Cyrus disabled the Lydian attack by using camels, which caused the their horses to run in fear.
Despite a courageous defense by the Lydians, the Persians managed to triumph, due to a ruse by Harpagus
After fourteen days of siege, the Lydian metropolis fell.
According to Herodotus, the Persian king, asked his prisoner why he’d fought him.
Croesus, typically, blamed the gods. “Mmm,” thought Cyrus, “bad advice?”.
“Well,” said Croesus, “In peace, sons bury their fathers. But in wartime, fathers bury their sons.”.
“Mm, fair point,” thought Cyrus. “Rather well put.” And so he let Croesus off the hook and appointed him as his adviser instead.
The Ionian Greek cities, on the Aegean Sea coast, as vassals of the Lydian king, now became subject to Cyrus, the Ionians and Aeolians sent envoys to Cyrus, but he rejected their terms.
They prepared for war, and requested aid from Sparta
Several revolts of the Greek cities, were later suppressed with severity.
Sparta voted to refuse aid, against the Persians, but they did send a ship, to observe their activity, and an envoy who ordered the Persians, not to attack any Greek city.
Cyrus was not impressed with Sparta, but since he wanted to attack Babylon and Egypt, he left one of his generals to conquer the Ionians.
Cyrus defeated the Babylonians, in combat outside the walls, but then they simply retreated behind their walls.
Cyrus attempted a siege, but Babylon had food supplies for several years.
Cyrus, unable to deal with the walls, stationed his army where the Euphrates entered the city.
He then diverted the river, and his army entered, under the walls.
If they had been detected, the Babylonians could have easily destroyed them, but they were having a festival and were unaware.
Cyrus wanted the realm of the Massagetae, by the Caspian sea.
The dream of Cyrus
Cyrus had a dream that Darius, son of Hystaspes, a Persian governor, had wings on his shoulder, and one of his wings overshadowed Europe,
the other overshadowed Asia.
Cyrus awoke in fear, and misinterpreted the dream, as Darius planning a coup, to have him overthrown.
Little is known of the family life of Cyrus.
He had two sons, one of whom, Cambyses, succeeded him; the other, Bardiya (Smerdis of the Greeks), was probably secretly put to death
by Cambyses, after he became ruler.
When Cyrus defeated Astyages, he also inherited Median possessions in eastern Iran,
but he had to engage in so much warfare, he needed to consolidate his rule, in this region.
After his conquest of Babylonia, he again turned to the east, and Herodotus tells of his campaign against nomads living east of the Caspian Sea.
According to the Greek historian, Cyrus was at first successful in defeating the ruler of the nomads
—called the Massagetai—who was a woman, and captured her son.
On the son’s committing suicide in captivity, his mother swore revenge. She defeated and killed Cyrus.
The Persians then made an alliance with the Arabs.
This was critical, since a land attack of Egypt required methods of obtaining water, while crossing a desert.
Cambyses’ attempted to capture Ethiopia.
Initially he sent spies to Ethiopia, with “gifts” .
Ethiopians were tall, strong, handsome and lived long (120 years)- the spies reported, They had plenty of gold, but little bronze.
They ate boiled meat and milk. The dead were embalmed and placed in clear caskets, in their homes.
The Ethiopian king recognized, the Persians were spies, and insulted the power of the Persians.
Cambyses, in anger, decided to attack, but did not plan for supplies in the desert.
He turned back before reaching Ethiopia, after his army was resorting to cannibalism to survive. (Her.Hist.3.25)
Cambyses attempts to attack also failed, due to a sandstorm which destroyed the army.
Cambyses arrived back in Egpyt , after his failure against Ethiopia.
The Egyptians were rejoicing because their god APIS (a specially marked bull) appeared.
Cambyses, thinking that they were rejoicing over his failure, killed the bull, causing a great insult.
The dream and madness of Cambyses
Cambyses killed his brother Smerdis, because he had a dream Smerdis would rule the empire
Cambyses once asked Prexaspes (who was a messenger of the court) what the people thought of their king.
Prexaspes answered, the people felt he drank too much, which angered the king.
Cambyses had Prexaspes’s son stand against a wall. The King then said ,
if he drank too much, he wouldn’t be able to shoot his arrow straight enough to kill his messenger’s son.
The king then drew his bow, and shot Prexaspes’s son in the heart.
Croesus , the cheif advisor, horrified told the king his subjects will not obey him if he continues with his cruelty.
Cambyses, was angered by his statement and tried to kill him.
Cambyses servants hid Croesus, rather than killing him, since they thought he might regret the decision later.
Cambyses was glad Croesus remained alive, but he killed those who refused to do what he commanded.
Cambyses then just went full on crazy, and opened tombs and ridiculed the Egyptian gods, in their temples
Events leading to Cambyses’ death
Cambyses received word in Egypt, that “Smerdis” had become the ruler of the Persians.
Knowing , it was an impostor who assumed the throne, because he had already killed the real Smerdis.
The impostor was the brother of Patizeithes, a Magi, who was in charge of Cambyses’ house,
also knew that Cambyses‘ brother Smerdis had been secretly killed.
Since Patizeithes‘ brother looked like Smerdis (and shared his name), they decided he should pretend to be the real Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and issued a proclamation, that all nations and armies should follow Smerdis, rather than Cambyses , who was already hated by this time.
Cambyses mounted his horse quickly, to organize his army to return, but in mounting his horse, Cambyses accidentally pierced his own leg with his sword, and after about 20 days, infection caused his death in Syria.
Cambyses, on his death bed, told the Persians, he had killed his brother, though this was not believed, at first,
Patizeithes, a Magi who was in charge of Cambyses’ house, also knew Cambyses‘ brother, Smerdis had been secretly killed.
Since Patizeithes‘ brother looked like Smerdis (and shared his name), they decided that he should pretend to be Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and issued a proclaimation that all nations and armies should follow Smerdis, rather than Cambyses. (Her.Hist.3.61)
The two brothers succeeded, since Cambyses died shortly after hearing about the revolt, and Prexaspes refused to admit that he had killed Cambyses‘ brother.
The two brothers, then bought the friendship of other nations by repealing the war taxes for three years, but the Persians began to suspect fraud when Smerdis never left the capital, and refused to have any private audiences with the Persian nobles.
Otanes, a Persian noble who’s daughter had been a wife of Cambyses, and therefore became a wife of fake “Smerdis“, used his daughter to verify who was king.
Initially this was difficult, since the daughter had never met the real Smerdis, and the king separated all of Cambyses‘ wives, as soon as he became king because, queen Atossa was a sister of both Smerdis and Cambyses and could easily change her allegiances.
However, it was known king Cyrus had cut off the ears of the real Smerdis, the Magi,
so Otanes proposed, his daughter check to see if the the man claiming to be Smerdis had ears.
Which was a dangerous, so the daughter waited until it was her turn in the harem rotation, to sleep with the king, and then checked his ears while he slept.
The imposter’s ears, revealed him, and Otanes gathered six other Persians, in a conspiracy to murder the Magi.
Otanes wanted to gain more support, but Darius urged them to attack the Magi, before their plot could be discovered.
Prexaspes, at a public gathering, was forced to admit, he killed the real Smerdis ,brother of Cambyses, and their now king, was a fraud.
Before the Magi knew what to do, the 7 Persians arrived at court, and were almost admitted to the presence of the king, but when guards finally stopped them, they killed the guards and the Magi.
The Persians responded to the revolt, by executing all of the Magi who could be found, since they were insulted that they had been ruled and tricked by the Magi.
This, later became the start of a yearly festival called “Slaughter of the Magi“.
Darius was one of the conspirators who murdered the Magi , impostor “Smerdis“
The 7 conspirators met, to decide what form of government to set up.
There were several opinions, but most voted for a new king.
Otanes
Otanes, did not want to rule or be ruled, so it was agreed that he would not be king, and he and his descendants,
would not be bound to follow any decree of whoever became king.
Otanes
So a method to select the king was decided, by a pact : whomever’s steed neighed first, after sunrise would be king.
Darius had his horse handler massage the vulva of a mare, and when the sun arose, he was to place his hand by the nose of Darius‘ horse,
who neighed first after sunrise.
Darius
Darius, by the help of his groom, won and became King of Persia.