CYRUS THE GREAT (Cuneiform Inscriptions Kuruš; Heb. Kôreš). - First king of Persia, raised by his conquests to a power dominating anterior Asia; he belonged to the most ancient branch of the dynasty of the Achaemenids (v.), which died out with his son Cambyses (v.).
In 558 he succeeded his father as king of Anshan in Susiana, and vassal of the king of Media. From the Chronicle of Nabonidus it is known that in the sixth year of this monarch (550) he is still king of Anshan, while three years later (547) he receives the title of "king of Persia." In fact, in the meantime he had subdued various tribes dependent on Media and shaken off the yoke of Astyages (v.), and had conquered his kingdom in 550; so that from that moment the title of "king of Persia" absorbed also 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 situated beyond Iran, as far as Sogdiana, fixing the Jaxartes river as the eastern boundary of his empire. Having secured the extremities of the vast empire, there remained for him only to subjugate the kingdom of Babylon, and this enterprise too proved easy for him, because he knew how to exploit the discontent that reigned within it on account of the ineptitude of Nabonidus. The capital Babylon fell on 16 Tishri (Sept.-Oct.) 539, through the work of Gubaru (Gobryas), governor of the land of Gutium, north of Opis (Chronicle of Nabonidus). Ten years later, in 529, C. died fighting against uncertain peoples situated beyond the Jaxartes, who were threatening the north-eastern frontiers of the empire.
C. was the founder of one of the vastest empires that history remembers, the fruit more of his political genius than of his strategic ability. Contrary to the Semitic conquerors, his conduct toward the vanquished was wholly inspired by mildness and generosity. In particular, as emerges from the "cylinder of C.," he respected, indeed favored the religion of the vanquished: thus at Babylon he rebuilt temples, restored divinities that Nabonidus had had transported to Babylon and even acknowledged himself placed on the throne of Babylon by the Babylonian god Marduk; finally, as a supreme act of clemency, it should be remembered that he permitted the peoples already deported to Babylon to return, if they wished, to their own countries. These data from the cuneiform documents help us to understand well the attitude of C. with regard to the Jews: in fact in the first year of his reign at Babylon (538) he permitted them to return home and rebuild at Jerusalem the temple to Yahweh (II Par. 36, 22-23; Eid. 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; Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XI, 1, 1-2). The prophet Daniel, who was already at the court of Babylon at the moment of the occupation, also enjoyed the favor of C. (Dan. 1, 21; 6, 28; 10, 1; 14, 1 ff.); in his book he describes several times, symbolically, the Persian empire: 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 of which longer, striking in three directions).