Cyrus: Did you mean...?

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...

The Cyrus Cylinder is a document issued by Cyrus the Great, consisting of a cylinder of clay inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform script. The cylinder was created in 539 BCE, surely by order of Cyrus the Great, when he took Babylon from Nabonidus...

This clay tablet dates back to the reign of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great, who ruled Iran between 550-530 BCE. The cylinder describes the king's peaceful capture of the city of Babylon in the year 539 BCE and he how built the main temple...

Childhood of King Cyrus, Antonio Maria Vassallo, second half of 17th century CE, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great by Matt Waters.

The government of ancient Persia was based on an efficient bureaucracy which combined the centralization of power with the decentralization of administration. The Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) founded by Cyrus the Great (r. c. 550-530...

Croesus (r. 560-546 BCE) was the King of Lydia, a region in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and was so wealthy that the expression "as rich as Croesus" originates in reference to him. Best known for his wealth, he is also famous for...

Cambyses II (r. 530-522 BCE) was the second king of the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek historian Herodotus portrays Cambyses as a mad king who committed many acts of sacrilege during his stay in Egypt, including the slaying of the sacred Apis...

Sardis (near modern-day Sart, Turkey) was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Lydia founded (according to Herodotus) by the Heracleidae, the Heraclid Dynasty descended from the hero Heracles (Hercules). The city was famous in antiquity...

The region of ancient Persia, which is modern-day Iran, has one of the longest histories, reaching back to the Palaeolithic Age, some one hundred thousand years ago. Between circa 1500 and 1000 BCE, a Persian priest named Zoroaster, also...