Cyrus: Did you mean...?

Cyrus II (d. 530 BCE), also known as Cyrus the Great, was the fourth king of Anshan and the first king of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus led several military campaigns against the most powerful kingdoms of the time, including Media, Lydia...

The Battle of Thymbra (547 BCE) was the decisive engagement between Cyrus II (the Great, r. c. 550-530 BCE) of Persia and Croesus (r. 560-546 BCE), King of Lydia. The Persian victory ended the Kingdom of Lydia, which was then absorbed into...

The estimated expanse of the Achaemenid Empire at its height c. 500 BCE was two million square miles. Most of this territory was conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Empire, who reigned from 559 to 530 BCE, the fourth king in...

Ionia was a territory in western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) populated by the Ionians (Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect) in c. 1150 BCE. It is best known as the birthplace of Greek philosophy (at Miletus) and the site of the Ionian Revolt...

The Cyrus Cylinder, dating from 539 BC. This document is a propaganda one of Cyrus II in order to show his legitimacy to rule in Babylonia.

Herodotus' Histories with their historical, geographical, ethnographic, and religious aspects, have always been a source of delight and interest, not only for generations of readers, students, and storytellers, but also for artists. A...

Persian art and architecture in the present day is associated with the nation of Iran and usually designated as beginning with the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) but has an even longer history with its origins dating back to before the...

Pasargadae was one of the oldest residences of the Achaemenid kings, founded by Cyrus the Great (r.559-530). It resembled a park of 2x3 km in which several monumental buildings were to be seen. According to the Roman geographer Strabo of...

East of the Zagros Mountains, a high plateau stretches off towards India. While Egypt was rising up against the Hyksos, a wave of pastoral tribes from north of the Caspian Sea was drifting down into this area and across into India. By the...

Ancient Persian culture contributed many of the aspects of the modern world which people take for granted as having always existed. The designation “Persia” comes from the Greeks – primarily from the historian Herodotus – but the people of...