CjaxSres (Kva^aprig, GrsKrised for the Old Vm. Uvakshatara, **beautiAil-eyed,*' Rawlinson, JIervd,s. 456), the name of two Median kings. See Media.
1. Ctaxabes I was, according to Herodotus, tb? third king of Media, being the son of Phraortes, ai grandson of Dejoces. His father having been idiki while besieging Ninus (Nineveh), he, immediatdT <£ his accession, B.C. 684, collected all the .mHitaiT re- sources of the empire to revenge his father's dea^; but he was called away from the siege of Ninas t^-fi attack of the Scythians, by whom he was defeated, smi reduced to a tributary condition of great rigor for ausr years, B.C. 684-607 (Herod, i, 103). Herodotus e^ where (i, 78 sq.) gives a different account of ths war. as having originated in the treachery of Alrattee ef Syria, who had sheltered some fugitive Scythians tha had served up to Cyaxares as a banquet one of his 0wi sons whom they had killed. The war, carried on {« five years against the Lydians by the Median moasnk, who evidently still retained his throne, was teraiiia^ ted by the mutual awe inspired by an eclipse, wbiek has been variously calculated, but probably wa« thit of Sept. 80, B.C. 610 (Baily, Philo*. TranaaeL 1811 ; Oltmann, Schrifl. der BerL Acad. 1812-13; Hafcs. Anal, of Chronology, i, 74r-78 ; Ideler, ffamtBmck <fer Chronologie, i, 209 sq. ; Fischer, Grieck. ZdUaf, %, a. 610). Cyaxares after this expelled the Scythiam, B.C. 607, and in the following year, with the aid of the king of Babylon, he took and destroyed the Assyma capital, at that time governed by Saidanapalus. This event is referred to in the Apocrypha (Tob. xiv, 15). where the Median king is styled " Ahasuems" (q. v.), and his Babylonian slly is called Nabuchodooocw. doubtless referring to Nabopolassar, the fiEither oTKflr ucfaadnezzar. See Babylonia. The result of titis campaign, according to Herodotus, was, that the Medes made the Assyrians their subjects, except the district of Babylon, probably meaning that the king- of Baby- lon now obtained complete deliverance fbom the yoka of Assyria. The league between Cyaxares and the king of Babylon is said by Polyhistor and Abydeav (ap. Euseb. Chnm. Arm. and SyncdL p. 210 b) to ban been cemented by the betrothal of Anyhis or Anjta, the daughter of C^xares, to Nabuchadrossar or Nsb- uchadonosor (L e. Nebuchadnezzar), the aon of tbs
CYCLE
621
CYMBAL
fjlonian king. They bave, however, by mistake,
the name of his son Asdapages (Astyages) for Gy- res (Clinton, i, 271, 279). Cyaxares was a brave
energetic, but violent and cmel prince, and died t. 694, after a reign of 44 years, leaving the throne Istyages (Herod, i, 78, 74, 103-106 ; iv, 11, 12 ; vii, —Smith, DicL of Class. Biog, s. v. t. Ctaxares II, the son of Astyages and grand-
of the preceding, succeeded his father at the age orty-nine years; but, being of a gentle disposition, left the government principally in the hands of his ihew and son-in-law Cyras. This acconnt is given
Xenophon Qn his Cyropcsdid), with which, how- r, the statements of Herodotus and Ctesias mate- !ly disagree. See Cyrus. This Cyaxares is bo- red to be the " Darios the Mode" (q. v.) referred to the book of Daniel (ix, 1).
C73rcle, a certain number of years in civil and eo- Biastical chronology. The Lunar Cpcle (cychu lu- , or d^eeawovaUs) embraces nineteen years, after the piradon of which the days of the new and full moon lerally fkll again upon the same day of the month, e Greek astronomer Meton is the inventor of this Je. Anatolios, bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, to- ld the close of the third century, first used it for icalating Easter (q. v.). When the Council of Nice minated the Easter controversy, and established iformity in the celebration of Easter, the bishops of exandiia wero commissioned to calculate annually i time of Easter, and to communicate it to the other ttropolitans. At first the bishops of Alexandria ed astronomical calculations, but subsequently they ain adopted the lunar cycle, and by means of it cal- lated Easter for a number of cycles in advance. itts the patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria prepared 1 Easter cycle for 480 years, or 22 lunar cycles, be- nning wiUi the year 880. This cycle was, however, »t well received in the Western churches, and patri- tb Cyril consequently reduced it to 95 years, or five nar cycles. This new Easter cycle extended from 487
531. When it approached its termination, Diony- os Exiguus (q. v.), in 525, proposed a new Easter rde, which embraced 16 lunar cycles, or 304 (Julian) ears. The defects of this cycle resulted firom the in- xroracy of the Julian year, and were not remedied QtU the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, fearly connected with the lunar cycle is the Golden ''umber (q. v.), which indicates what place a given ear occupies in the lunar cycle. The Cycle of the ^ (or of the dominical letter) embraces 28 years, fter the expiration of which the Sundays, and conse- uently also the days of the week, fall again upon the une days of the month. In Cliristian chronology it ecame early customary to use the first seven letters f the alphabet for designating the seven days of the reek, A was always used for the Ist of January, and he letter upon which fell the first Sunday of the year rss called the Dominical Letter^ which, in ordinary rears, designated every Sunday of the year. But in very fbnrth year the 25th of February was intercala- «d, and as it had the same letter as the 24th of Febru- ary, the intercalary year had two dominical letters, me applying from Jan. 1 to Feb. 24, and the second from Feb. 25 to the close of the year. As an ordinary i^ear consists of 52 weeks and 1 day, the dominical letter of the new year is generally the one preceding the dominical letter of the year past ; and if all years were ordinary years of 865 days, the §ame dominical letter would revert every seventh year. As there is, however, a change of one day every fourth year by the intercaktion of one day, and the consequent ad- vance of the dominical letter, it takes four times sev- «n, or 28 years, before the cycle is completed, and the Mme series of dominical letters recommences. An- other slight disturbance is, however, produced by the omiawon of the intercahiry day three times m every 400 years (thus, ia the years 1700, 1800, 1900).