Cyrus the Great (
Old Persian ??????????,
[1] Kuruš,
[2] modern Persian ????? ????,
Kurosh-e Bozorg or ????? ????
Kurosh-e Kabir (c. 600 BC or 576&_160;– August 530 BC or 529 BC), also known as
Cyrus II of Persia and
Cyrus the Elder,
[3] was a
Persian Shahanshah (
Emperor). He was the founder of the
Persian Empire under the
Achaemenid dynasty. The empire expanded under his rule, eventually conquering most of
Southwest Asia and much of
Central Asia, from
Egypt and the
Hellespont in the west to the
Indus River in the east, to create the largest state the world had yet seen.
[4]During his twenty nine to thirty year reign, Cyrus fought and conquered some of the greatest states of his time, including the Median Empire, the Lydian Empire, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he himself died in battle, fighting the Scythians along the Syr Darya in August 530 BC or 529BC.[5] He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who managed to conquer Egypt during his short rule.
Beyond his nation, Cyrus left a lasting legacy on Jewish religion (through his Edict of Restoration), human rights, politics, and military strategy, as well as on both Eastern and Western civilizations.
The ancient historians Ctesias and Plutarch noted that Cyrus was named from Kuros, the sun, a concept which has been interpreted as meaning "like the sun," by noting its relation to the Persian noun for sun, khor, while using -vash as a suffix of likeness.[6] However, some modern historians, such as Karl Hoffmann and Rüdiger Schmitt of the Encyclopædia Iranica, have suggested the translation "humiliator of the enemy in verbal contest."[7]
