(Kuros; in Persian, Kurus). (1) A celebrated conqueror, and the founder of the Persian Empire. He comes forth in a line of monarchs who ruled in Susiana. According to Herodotus, he was the son of Mandani, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. The father of Cyrus was the Persian Cambyses. It having been foretold that Mandani's son would become the lord of all Asia, Astyages attempted to destroy the infant, and delivered it to Harpagus, his attendant, to kill. Harpagus, however, fearing the anger of Mandani, gave the child to a herdsman, one Mitradates, who reared the young Cyrus as his own son, under the name of Agradates. When ten years of age, the true parentage of the boy was accidentally discovered by Astyages, who, after punishing Harpagus with great barbarity, sent Cyrus to his parents in Persia. When the young prince grew up, he headed a revolt against Astyages, who had become unpopular by his tyranny, and defeated him in battle (B.C. 559). The Medes then accepted Cyrus as their king.

He had not been long seated on the throne when his dominions were invaded by Croesus, king of Lydia, the issue of which contest was so fatal to the latter. (See Croesus.) The conquest of Lydia established the Persian monarchy on a firm foundation, and Cyrus was now called away to the East by vast designs and by the threats of a distant and formidable enemy. Babylon still remained an independent city in the heart of his empire, and to reduce it was his first and most pressing care. On another side he was tempted by the wealth and weakness of Egypt, while his northern frontier was disturbed and endangered by the fierce barbarians who ranged over the plains that stretch from the skirts of the Indian Caucasus to the Caspian. Until these last should be subdued or humbled his Eastern provinces could never enjoy peace or safety. These objects demanded his own presence; the subjugation of the Asiatic Greeks, as a less urgent and less difficult enterprise, he committed to his lieutenants. While the latter, therefore, were executing his commands in the West, he was himself enlarging and strengthening his power in the East. After completing the subjugation of the nations west of the Euphrates, he marched upon Babylon (q.v.), which he took. The account of this conquest, as described by Herodotus, is given in the article Babylon. Recent archæological discoveries, however, tend to discredit his narrative. A tabletinscription found at Babylon states that Cyrus, "king of Elam," took Sippara and Babylon "without fighting." This took place in B.C. 538. See Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments (London, 1883); and his Introduction to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2d ed. London, 1887).

Cyrus enjoyed no long interval of repose. The protection which he afforded to the Jews was probably connected with his designs upon Egypt, but he never found leisure to carry them into effect. Soon after the fall of Babylon he undertook an expedition against one of the nations on the eastern side of the Caspian. According to Herodotus, it was the Massagetae, a nomadic horde which had driven the Scythians before them towards the West; and, after gaining a victory over them by stratagem, he was defeated in a great battle and slain. The event is the same in the narrative of Ctesias; but the people against whom Cyrus marched are called the Derbices, and their army is strengthened by troops and elephants furnished by Indian allies; while the death of Cyrus is speedily avenged by one of his vassals, Amorges, king of the Sacae, who gains a decisive victory over the Derbices, and annexes their land to the Persian Empire. Cyrus died in B.C. 529. His son and successor, Cambyses, had been made by him king of Babylon three years before. Cyrus was one of the greatest Asiatics who ever lived; and with the exception of Egypt, the greater part of the Old World was under his rule at the time of his death. His capitals were Ecbatana and Susa; and his tomb exists to-day at Murgab, near Pasargadae. (Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898)