CYRUS the GREAT (cuneiform inscriptions Kurrā; Heb. Koresh). — First king of Persia, elevated by his conquests to the dominant power in Western Asia; he belonged to the oldest branch of the Achaemenid dynasty (v.), which became extinct with his son Cambyses (v.).
In 558 he succeeded his father as king of Anshan in Susiana, and as vassal of the king of Media. From the Nabonidus Chronicle it is known that in the sixth year of this monarch (550) he was still king of Anshan, while three years later (547) he received the title of “King of Persia.” In the meantime he had subdued various tribes dependent on Media and, shaking off the yoke of Astyages (v.), had conquered his kingdom in 550; so that from that moment the title of “King of Persia” absorbed that of King of Media. In 546 he conquered Lydia and then all of Asia Minor. Between 546 and 540 he subdued all the regions beyond Iran, as far as Sogdiana, fixing the eastern boundary of his empire at the Jaxartes River. Having secured the extremities of his vast empire, nothing remained but to subjugate the kingdom of Babylon, and even this enterprise proved easy for him, as he exploited the internal discontent there over the unpopularity of Nabonidus. The capital Babylon fell on the 16th of Tishri (September–October) 539, by the hand of Qubaru (Gobryas), governor of the land of Gutium, north of Opis (Nabonidus Chronicle). Ten years later, in 529, Cyrus died fighting against uncertain peoples located beyond the Jaxartes, who threatened the northeastern borders of the empire.
Cyrus was the founder of one of the largest empires that history records, a result more of his political genius than of his strategic skill. Unlike the Semitic conquerors, his conduct toward the vanquished was entirely inspired by mildness and generosity. In particular, as is evident from the “Cyrus Cylinder,” he respected, indeed favored, the religion of the conquered: thus in Babylon he rebuilt temples, restored deities that Nabonidus had taken to Babylon, and even acknowledged himself as placed on the throne of Babylon by the Babylonian god Marduk; finally, as the supreme act of clemency, it should be remembered that he allowed the peoples already deported to Babylon to return, if they wished, to their own lands. These data from the cuneiform documents help us to understand Cyrus’s attitude toward the Jews: in the first year of his reign in Babylon (538) he permitted them to return and rebuild the temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–11; 3:7; 4:3; 5:13–17; 6:2–5, 14); this event had already been foretold by Isaiah (44:28; 45:1–4; cf. 41:1–4; 46:11; Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, XI, 1.1–2). The prophet Daniel, who was already at the court of Babylon at the time of the conquest, also enjoyed Cyrus’s favor (Dan. 1:21; 6:28; 10:1; 14:1 ff.); in his book he describes the Persian empire symbolically several times: 2:32, 39 (breast and arms of silver); 7:5, 17 (bear with one side higher and three ribs in its mouth); 8:3, 4, 20 (ram with two horns, one longer, striking in three directions).