Page 58 - All About History - Issue 33-15

Cyrus the Great

milkandfortheoutlandishequalityofthesexes.
Armouredinhelmetsandwarbelts,theyfought The
onhorsebackwithbattleaxesandbows,menand
womenalike.Atthetime,theywereruledbya Persian
queen named Tomyris.
Nomadic horse-archers were almost impossible Empire
to defeat, because they vanished like mist across The scope of the Persian Empire was so large that
thesteppe.So(inHerodotus’stale)Cyrusresorted it soon became known as the Universal Empire.
totrickery.Hesetoutabanquetwithmuchwine, Its frontiers were in a constant state of fl ux as
which was unfamiliar to the milk-drinking nomads. the political and administrative effi ciency of
ThePersianswithdrew,thenomadsadvanced, the different imperial dynasties changed.

found the banquet, ate, drank and fell into a stupor. Despite this, the Persian infl uence spread
ThePersiansreturned,killedmostofthemand from the Mediterranean to India and
took Tomyris’s son prisoner. When he awoke, its features are recorded in most BLACK SEA
he committed suicide. Tomyris swore to get her cultures.
revenge: “Leave my land now... or I will give you
morebloodthanyoucandrink.”Inthenextbattle, MACEDONIA
thenomadsdestroyedthePersiansandkilled
Cyrus.Tomyrisfoundtheking’scorpse,filledaskin Sardis
containerwithblood,cutoffhisheadandthrust
it into the blood with these words: “Although I am GREECE MEDITERRANEE
alive and gained victory over you in battle, you SEA
have destroyed me because you took my son by
trickery.NowIshalldojustasIthreatened,and Seat of the empire
give you your fill of blood.” It is believed that Cyrus
Itisavividtale,butitstruthforHerodotuswas the Great chose the site of
probably less in the details than the moral: great the Achaemenid Empire’s
capital, Persepolis, but it was
leadersshouldnotresorttotrickery. Darius I who built the terrace
Cyrus had ruled for some 30 years, and created and palaces, the ruins of
an empire more than 2,500 kilometres across, the which still stand today.
largestintheworldtodate,reachingfromtheBlack
Seatopresent-dayAfghanistan.Hisson,Cambyses
andanotherdescendant,Darius,extendedthe
empire into Egypt, the Libyan and India. It was
nottolast.Inthe330sBCE,AlexandertheGreat
defeated the Persians, and the Achaemenids came
to an ignominious end.
However,Cyrus’screationsentechoesdownthe
corridorsoftime.Scholarsagreethathissuccess
as an imperial ruler owed much to his form of
government, balancing central administration
withlocalfreedom.Hissystemwasretainedby
subsequent dynasties, and served for more than
1,000yearsuntiltheArabconquestofPersiainthe
seventh century.
TheCyrusCylinderevenproclaimssucha
modern-sounding commitment to religious
freedomandjusticethat,inthe1970s,theShah PERSEPOLIS
of Iran called it “thefirsthumanrightscharter
in history.” More likely, according to others, it
resembles modernity in a different form, as a
puffed-up piece of propaganda. But Iran still sees it
as a foundation stone of national identity.
ThememoryofCyruslivesonathissupposed
burial site near Shiraz, in southern Iran. The tomb,
standingonarockplinth,isclosetotheruinsof
Pasargadae, Cyrus’s capital until his son Cambyses
changedittoSusa.Thereisnohardevidencethat
itishistomb,butifitis–andthesameasthe Architecture
onehonouredtwocenturiesafterhisburialby The quintessential feature of Persian
architecture was its eclectic nature, with
Alexander–itborealong-goneinscription,which elements of Assyrian, Egyptian, Median and
raninoneversion:“Passer-by,IamCyrus,who Asiatic Greek all incorporated. Despite this, its
gavethePersiansanempire,andwaskingofAsia. buildings had a unique Persian identity that is
recognisable the world over.
Grudge me not therefore this monument.”
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