BACK Cyrus the Great and the Rise of an Empire NEXT
Chaos was everywhere. Whoever had the most power called himself the king and ruler of all. Everywhere you looked there was slavery. There was no equality between men and women. There was no means of communication. Corruption was all around. There were massacres, wars, and rebellions. Then in this kind of world, Cyrus the Great (also known as Kourosh shah) was born. When he was ten years old, he demonstrated leadership like no other of his ancestors or his father before him, the Cambodian king. Cyrus would be the very genius man to rise an empire from the dirt to be a world power of its time.
The Persians did not create just the first empire in history, but they created one of the first and largest. They were important because they were the first people to unite three sites of early urban civilizations under a single government. In the process, they opened communication between three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe.
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Cyrus (580-529 BC) founded Persia by uniting the two original tribes: the Medes and the Persians. Cyrus was upright, a great leader of men, generous and benevolent, and, at one point, controlled one of the greatest Empires ever seen. He was the first world leader to be referred to as "the Great". The Hellenes, whom he conquered, regarded him as 'Law-giver', and the Jews regarded him as 'the appointed of the Lord'. He founded a new capital city at Pasargadae in Fars, and had established a government for his Empire. He presented himself not as a conqueror, but as a liberator and the legitimate successor to the crown. He also declared the first Charter of Human Rights in the Cyrus Cylinder. In 539 BCE, he allowed more than 40,000 Jews to leave Babylon and return to Palestine, bringing peace to mankind.
To understand the greatness of Cyrus relative to his time, we should compare him with Alexander the Great, who came to power 250 years after Cyrus. When Alexander conquered the Persian capital Persepolis, he burned it. You can see the difference of these two leaders -- one conquers and allows freedom; the other conquers and destroys. Before Cyrus the Great, the leaders supported slavery, but Cyrus did not believe in slavery. This is another indication of an old rich Persian culture, based on ethics.
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Under Cyrus the Great's rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly and eventually conquering most of Asia. The reign of Cyrus the Great lasted between 29 and 31 years, while he resumed to respect customs and religions of the lands he conquered.
Credits to www.cyrusthegreat.net
"Now this was the state in which Cyrus found the tribes and people of Asia when, at the head of a small Persian force, he started on his career. The Medes accepted his leadership willingly, but it was through conquest he won [other popular favors]. He established his rule over [other tribes]. With a sweep, he was the largest conqueror the world had ever seen."
Quoted from Cyropaedia 1.5, by Xenophon
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~Cyrus the Great English translation of his rule over the Persians. www.kosoof.com , January 31, 2008