Topic > The Rise, Achievements, and Fall of Cyrus the Great

Throughout ancient Persia, there were several kings and peoples who rose to power. All together they play a part of history that can be looked back on today. Many of them obtained different goals and ideals during their separate sentences which helped them stand out. Their individual political strategies and military tactics are some of the most studied areas of specific kingdoms. The rise to power, the maintenance of power and finally the fall and demise are a common feature of all of them. It was very common for people from the same family to follow the rule of their ancestors and continue to hold power through their family. This remained true of King Cyrus II, or Cyrus the Great, when he came to power after taking it from the king of the Median kings, Astyages. From that moment, Cyrus began his intellectual and powerful reign that would last several decades. It didn't take long for him to begin wanting to expand and grow his kingdom, which appears to have been one of his main goals. The inscriptions left behind are one of the ways the story has survived and can now be interpreted by people. Being left by different people and kings, trying to be able to convey their stories of what happened. These study tools now allow us to be able to analyze and above all better understand the events that took place during the development and changes that were occurring in ancient Persia. Cyrus the Great was an intelligent and powerful leader with the goal of expanding his kingdom, which ultimately became his downfall. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Cyrus, son of the local Persian king, rose to power after taking the power and king's place from his grandfather, Astyages. His grandfather was of Persian descent, while his mother was of Median descent. His family lineage allowed him to call himself king of the Medes and king of Persia. With kings constantly following in their family's footsteps in controlling power, it makes sense for Cyrus to become king. It seems that he did not want to wait until the end of his grandfather's reign to take away his position, so that he could control power. Having multiple family backgrounds and connections for Cyrus could have been very beneficial to him. It could have helped him build better relationships with those groups of people by saying that he was a lot like them. It tied him to other families and increased the connections he could make. He married Cassandane, an Achaemenid princess, who would only help strengthen his power and connections throughout his empire. It was very common for people of power to marry into each other's families to extend the kingship and be able to continue the power in their respective families. Together, Cyrus and Cassandane had five children. One of their sons, Cambyses II, would eventually succeed Cyrus as king. To continue the family's reign, Cambyses II would have eventually wanted to have a son of his own, to be the successor. This would allow the family to continue their legacy and the power they had. Cyrus and Cassandane also had another son, along with three daughters. This allowed them to continue the family tradition of succeeding each other after his death. It was important for them and their family to be able to maintain power and continue to marry into other strong families to strengthen their own. This allowed them to gain more power and support from different types of people to help them start and continue to grow the number of people under their rule when the time comes. “Cassandana, wife of Cyrus II, and Achaemenid, sister of Otanes and daughter of Pharnaspes… AccordingHerodotus, Cyrus loved her dearly, and when she died, he ordered all the subjects of his empire to observe a “great mourning”. This shows people today how much he cared for his wife and was extremely sad during and after the time of her disappeared so that everyone in his empire could participate in it. This might lead us to believe that his family was very important to him in everything he was doing. The online encyclopedia suggests that she was eventually buried in Pasargadae after her death years after their marriage. King Cyrus' rise to power was not easy, as it came with a battle against his own family line. It all began with his rebellion, along with a small army that would end up defeating and capturing Astyages, leaving him as the new king. It was there that Cyrus began to display his intelligent military tactics capable of defeating a larger army. But he didn't stop there because he wanted to continue expanding his empire further. This would lead to a series of battles with different groups of people to put them under the reign of the current king of Persia. In some cases, as with other rulers, it would be left to the people in those areas to voluntarily agree to be under his rule. The other option would be to go into battle to decide whether or not this will happen. It seems they wouldn't always want to fight if it could be avoided, giving people the chance to surrender their rule. This could be about Cyrus and the general wanting to keep as many people in their army healthy. It was also that he wanted and expected people to like him from the beginning and submit to himself and his large and powerful army. After the battle with the Medes and the change of power, with Cyrus taking power, the Lydian king, Croesus, saw an opportunity to expand. He passed into the territory of Media, which led to nothing. Subsequently Cyrus decided to move into their territory, "and in a historic battle he defeated the Lydians and captured Sardis". The battle started by Croesus did not have the result he wanted. There can be and have been clear consequences in Persian history regarding attempting to start a battle and not ending up with the expected outcome. The choice to try to overthrow Cyrus and his land ended the opposite way he had intended, making him angry. enough to follow him and start a battle. So he left some of his men there to ensure that they began to follow his rules and conform to Persian ideals. The result was that Cyrus became king of all his people, and at that point there was nothing more he could do. He attempted to start a battle with Cyrus, then had to make the decision to retreat. Cyrus was not happy with the attempted battle from the start and after the retreat must have felt that he could not allow them to walk away from something they had started. This ultimately ended with them entering their land and ending the battle begun against them, helping begin the growth of Cyrus' Persian empire. This was in addition to the Persian Empire, which could have led to its desire to continue to grow. From that moment he began to expand the surrounding areas, and many accepted his positions without fighting. Cyrus and his army were very powerful and not many people wanted to challenge them. As Cyrus continued to gain more land in his empire, growing a number of cities under his rule, he wanted more. He was on his way to strengthening the largest empire of the time, at one point even calling himself "the ruler of the world." Meanwhile, after sending his general and other parts of his army in various directions to expand, he began to head eastward. While adding several citiesto his empire down the road, he was close enough to Babylon that he wanted to try to conquer them too. This would add another major area of ​​land to his current empire. This battle could potentially continue his trend of adding large areas of land to his current empire that he already possessed. All those battles showed some of the things he had in mind during his time as king of Persia. He wanted to be able to make it as big as possible and was trying to avoid killing or hurting people. As king, it would have been easy to understand that he wanted to continue to grow the amount of landed people he was in charge of. He wanted to have as many people as possible under his reign and following his rules. He let several cities and areas accept that he was too powerful to hold and fall peacefully to him. Furthermore, when he first took and defended his place as king against the Medes, and when the Lydians first entered his territory, he did not have the worst intentions to expand his empire. He then approached Babylon, which at the time had a rich and powerful king, Nabonidus. After a previous battle outside the city, "two days later the Persians took Babylon, which surrendered without a fight, according to the Babylonian chronicle... Cyrus entered the city in triumph... from other sources, however, the story of the fall of Babylon is completely different.” Researchers have records of different accounts of what happened when Cyrus originally went to Babylon. In the non-peaceful version, Cyrus is said to have entered the city with more violent behavior usual battle, that he was now part of the Persian Empire. This differed from most of his previous times in battle, if the second tale was true. It could be that he didn't like the way the city was being run, or that he wasn't favorable to their king .The other possibility could be that it appeared to be an important piece of land that he wanted to have and that he would get it by any means. After that battle occurred and Babylon was his, this led to an inscription known as the Cylinder of Cyrus. The Cyrus Cylinder is the inscription of a cylinder with writings, from the tale of Cyrus himself, as he wished to share some of his stories. It was then that he called himself “sovereign of the world”. The inscriptions on the cylinder exemplify how he wanted to be able to tell the story of this battle from his point of view, partly showing all the power he had. By then he had acquired a large amount of land. He didn't want to stop expanding and was trying to keep getting more land. From his story, calling himself that, he might have felt like he did all that work himself. Interestingly enough, he didn't try to change much in their land at all. “Cyrus treated his reign as a union with the Babylonians… He also attempted to restore the country's normal economic life.” Babylon had previously been conquered by Nabonidus, who wanted to control the people and force them to live there. Once Cyrus was under control, he restored many freedoms to those people, allowing them to put statues of their gods and figures around the country back on the cylinder according to him. The Cyrus Cylinder is thought to be the first form of real documented "human rights", based on allowing all those people to be free. He freed the Jewish people who were forced to live there, allowing them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. This is a huge sign of his legacy, that he freed all the Jewish people to return to their land to rebuild and start their lives again after being in captivity for years. Under the previous controlling ruler they had little power andlittle say in how it would work. They could not live as they wanted and had to follow his strict guidelines. Then, when Cyrus took over, they could be freer. He didn't want to impose much on them as their king. He wanted to help them grow and let the people who wanted to live there be able to be there without being held against their will. “However, the generally tolerant character of Cyrus' reign is confirmed by Jewish sources. Chapters 40-55 of the Book of Isaiah were probably written by a witness to the fall of Babylon, and some extended passages are similar in both spirit and context to contemporary Babylonian texts praising Cyrus and condemning Nabonidus. Cyrus' impact on the Jewish people then was great and he is still considered a great person in helping their history. Cyrus allowing them to be free was a great choice and shows the type of person he was that way. He allowed everyone to be able to practice their religion and, looking at that decision, he didn't keep people captive. In a changing era of rulers and armies, his character stood out for his decisions made as a leader for all. Now he will always be an example for all those who have read and will read the Bible in their lives. When people come across the Book of Isaiah, they will see the decision he made and the impact it had on a religion. The right and correct decision allowed them to be free and start their lives again. It was much appreciated by them when it was written and will continue to be thanked for having set them free to achieve the purpose in which they believed. A different translation of the Cyrus Cylinder has recently been made. The article on the most recent translation states that it was written about his “account of Cyrus' conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, of ​​his restoration in various temples of the statues removed by Nabonidus, the previous king of Babylon, and of his work in Babylon. The cylindrical shape is typical of royal inscriptions of the late Babylonian period, and the text shows that the cylinder was written to be buried in the foundations of the city walls of Babylon." It seems he wanted to give his side of the story and had the inscriptions of this cylinder the way he wanted to tell the story. If his account of history is accurate, his treatment of the Babylonians once he was their king is very significant. Cyrus begins by describing himself with the titles of "king of the universe, the great king, the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world." This begins as he describes all the power he believed he had over many different groups of people. By the time he added Babylon to his Persian empire, he already had so many different cities and places under his rule, giving him the impression of the power he had. This adds to the idea that he wanted to keep adding more and more land to increase the amount of power he had. Cyrus says that he and his army entered Babylon peacefully and came to treat it better than it had previously. Nabonidus. At first they were not sure about him becoming the ruler, but he removed their doubt by being more lenient and freeing them from some of the things they could not do before. He wanted to make them happy by freeing them to the places they wanted to be able to be, allowing them the freedom to practice the religion of their choice and not the one that was imposed on them. He asked people for blessings from their gods in exchange for allowing them to practice the religion of their choice, wishing him and his son long life. Later, he built city walls to add protection which was never completed. This confirms what Curtis had written about King Cyrus granting freedoms that many people previously did not have. Curtis then”.