542
CYRUS
CYRUS
The annalistic tablet, which, when complete, bejraa with the first year of the rei^ of Nabonidus, tells us that in the seventh year of the latter's reign (B.C. 549) Astyajres had marched against ' Cyrus, king of Ansan,' but that his army revolted against him and delivered him to Cyrus, who then marched to Eebatana, captured it, and carried its spoil to Ansan. Three years later (B.C. 546), Cyrus bears for the first time the title of ' king of Persia,' so that he must have gained possession of Persia between B.C. 549 and 546. In the latter year he crossed the Tigris below Arbela and conquered northern Mesopotamia as well as Armenia.
In B.C. 538, aided by a revolt in southern Bab3'- loiiia, he attacked Nabonidus from the north. A battle was fought at Opis, which resulted in the defeat of the Bab. army ; and a few days later, on the 14th of Tammuz (June), ' Sipnara was taken without fighting.' Nabonidus fled and concealed himself in Babylon, followed by Cobryas, the governor of Kurdistan, with the army of Cyrus. On the 16th, Gobrvas entered Babylon without resistance, and Na"bonidus was captured. The daily services went on as usual in the temples of the city, and the contract-tablets show that there was no disturbance of trade. On the 3rd of Marcheshvan (October), Cyrus came to Babylon, and henceforth bore the title of 'king of Babylonia.' ' Peace to the city did Cyrus establish ; peace to all the province of Babylon did Gobryas his governor proclaim. Governors in Babylon he appointed. On the 11th of the month the wife * of Nabonidus died, and for six days there was mourning for her. On the 4th of Nisan, Cambyses conducted her funeral in the temple of Nebo. After this, offerings to ten times the usual amount were made to the Bab. deities.
The proclamation of Cyrus justifies his seizure of the Bat), crown, and declares that he had been called to it by BelMerodach, who was angry with Nabonidus. He describes himself as ' king of the city of Ansan,' the son of Cambyses, king of Ansan, grandson of Cyrus, king of Ansan, and great-grand- son of Teispes, king of Ansan, and says that he had restored to their homes the exiles who were in Babylonia as well as their gods. He concludes by praying that the deities he has thus restored may daify intercede for him before Bel-Merodach and Nebo, whose ' worshipper ' Cyrus professes himself to be.
It is clear that the Greek writers have con- founded the Manda or nomad Scyths and Cim- merians with the Mada or Medes. Cyrus, moreover, like his ancestors, was not king of Persia, but of Ansan or Anzan, one of the most important divi- sions of Elam, which is stated in a cuneiform tablet to be the equivalent of Elam, and of which the native kings of Susa called themselves ruler.s. Teispes, the son of the Persian Achoemenes, seems to have con(iuered it at the time of the fall of the Assyr. empire. The fact explains Is 21', as well as tne use of Susian as one of the three official languages of the Persian empire. At Behistun, Parius states that eight of his ancestors had been kings ' in a double line.' As Teispes was the father of his great-grandfather Ariaramnes, we should have exactly the eight kings, if we suppose that while the line of Cyrus was ruling in Anzan, that of Darius was reigning in Persia.
Another fact which is due to the cuneiform
texts is, that the account of the siege of Babylon
by Cyrus, given bj' Herodotus, is a fiction, derived
probably from one of the sieges of the city by
* Or, Aooorcling to the reading of Pinches, the boo.
Darius Hystaspis. The date of the conquest of Astyages is also fixed. The conquest of Crtesus and'the Lydian empire probably took place before that of Babjlon, as well as the reduction of the Greek cities in Asia Minor by the Medes, Mazares and Harpa^us.
Before his death the empire of Cyrus extended from the Mediterranean to Bactria, and was thus larger than that of the Assyrians. Different stories are told of his death. Herodotus, who knew of mure than one, says that he was slain when invading the MassagetfE. According to Ctesias, he had invaded the Derbikes, and after gaining a victory over them by stratagem, and capturing the son of their queen, Tomyris, was killed in a second engagement in which his troops were defeated. Diodorus asserts that he was taken prisoner by Tomyris, who crucified him ; while Xenophon makes him die peacefully, and be buried at Pasar- gada, seven years after the death of C3'axares.
The Bab. contract-tablets, on the contrary, prove that he reigned nine j-ears over Babylon and ' the empire,' dying in July B.C. 529. A year before his death he had made his son, Camtnses, king of Babylon. According to Herodotus, Cambyses was the son of Cassandana, the dau"liter of PharnaspSs. The supposed tomb of Cyrus at Murghab can hardly belong to the ^eat conqueror : it is difficult to reconcile its character and position with the account given by Arrian (vi. 29), and the figure on a neighbouring column, above whose head is the inscription, ' I am Cyrus, the king, the Akhae- menian,' is that of a winged demigod who wears an ECTptian head-dress. It can hardly, therefore, have Deen sculptured before the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. The most probable view is that it represents Cyrus the younger.