Who was Cyrus the Great?

He was Cyrus II (c. 600 to 530 BC), the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, who conquered Media, Lydia and Babylon to build the largest empire the world had yet seen.

What is Cyrus the Great famous for?

For founding the Persian Empire through his conquests of Media, Lydia and Babylon, and for his reputation for tolerance toward the peoples he ruled.

What is the Cyrus Cylinder?

A clay cylinder inscribed after his capture of Babylon in 539 BC, recording his settlement of the city; it is often cited as an early example of a ruler's tolerance, though it was a royal proclamation of its time, not a modern charter.

Did Cyrus the Great free the Jews?

The Hebrew Bible credits Cyrus with allowing the Jews exiled in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, part of his wider policy toward conquered peoples.

How did Cyrus the Great die?

He died around 530 BC on campaign in the east; the Greek historian Herodotus tells of his death fighting the Massagetae under Queen Tomyris, but the accounts are uncertain.

Why is Cyrus called 'the Great'?

For the speed and scale of his conquests, which created the first Persian Empire, and for the reputation he earned as a just and tolerant ruler.

Cyrus the Great: founder of the Persian Empire

Cyrus the Great built, in a single lifetime, the largest empire the world had yet seen². Rising from a minor kingdom, he overthrew the Medes, the fabulously rich Lydians and mighty Babylon, and forged the Achaemenid Persian Empire³. He was remembered not only for his conquests but, unusually, for the tolerance he showed the peoples he ruled.

The rise of Persia

Cyrus began as king of a small Persian realm under the overlordship of the Medes. Around 550 BC he overthrew his Median overlord² and united the two peoples under his own rule, the first step in a breathtaking expansion that would carry Persian power from the Aegean to Central Asia.

Coloured historical map of the Near East around 600 BC showing the Lydian, Median, Chaldean and Egyptian empires — The great powers of the Near East around 600 BC: Lydia, Media, the Chaldean kingdom of Babylon and Egypt. Cyrus would conquer the first three. From William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas, 1923. Public domain

Lydia and Babylon

He turned west against Lydia and its proverbially rich king Croesus, taking his capital Sardis around 546 BC, then east and south until, in 539 BC, he entered Babylon, the greatest city of the age, with little resistance¹. In a single generation the small kingdom of Persia had become a world empire.

Red-figure Greek vase showing a bearded king seated on a throne atop a pyre while a servant tends the fire — Croesus, king of Lydia, enthroned on his pyre, painted on an Attic red-figure amphora attributed to Myson, around 500 to 490 BC. Louvre, Paris. Public domain

The tolerant conqueror

What set Cyrus apart in ancient memory was how he ruled. Rather than crushing conquered peoples, he generally respected their customs, religions and local rulers¹. The famous Cyrus Cylinder records his settlement of Babylon in this spirit⁴, in the language of a royal proclamation of its time, and the Hebrew Bible remembers him for allowing the exiled Jews to return home and rebuild their temple⁵, a reputation for clemency rare among conquerors.

Photograph of a cracked barrel-shaped clay cylinder covered in lines of cuneiform script — The Cyrus Cylinder, a clay cylinder from Babylon inscribed in cuneiform in the mid 6th century BC with Cyrus's account of his conquest of the city. British Museum, London. CC0 (public domain)

Death in the east

Cyrus died around 530 BC campaigning on his empire's eastern frontier; Greek tradition tells of his fall against the Massagetae and their queen Tomyris⁶, though the details are uncertain. He was laid to rest in a simple tomb at Pasargadae that still stands¹.

Photograph of a small stone tomb with a gabled roof standing on six stepped tiers of masonry — The tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae in southwestern Iran, a gabled stone chamber on a stepped plinth. A. Davey, CC BY 2.0

Meet his son Cambyses II, or explore the other great commanders of the Persian Empire.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

Encyclopaedia Iranica (Muhammad A. Dandamayev), “CYRUS iii. Cyrus II The Great” ↩ a b c d
Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (trans. Peter T. Daniels) (Eisenbrauns, 2002). ↩ a b
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Cyrus the Great” ↩
Amélie Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (Routledge, 2007). ↩
Hebrew Bible, Book of Ezra, Ezra 1:1 to 4: the edict of Cyrus permitting the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple. ↩
Herodotus, Histories, Book 1, 201 to 214: Cyrus's campaign against the Massagetae and Queen Tomyris. ↩
World History Encyclopedia, “Cyrus the Great, Encyclopedia of World History”
Wikipedia, “Cyrus the Great”