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Cyrus the Great, The Phenomenon

Cyrus (Kourosh in Persian; Kouros in Greek) is regarded as one of the most outstanding figures in history. His success in creating and maintaining the Achaemenian Empire was the result of an intelligent blending of diplomatic and military skills and his rule was tempered with wisdom and tact. The Persians called him 'father'; the Greeks, whom he co...

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Phraortes

Phraortes (Old Persian FrÃ-da): son of Upadaranma, king of Media (522-521 BCE). The immediate cause of Phraortes' rebellion was the death of the Persian king Cambyses in the Spring of 522 and the usurpation of the throne by a Magian named GaumÃ-ta, who did not belong to the Achaemenid dynasty and may have been a Mede by birth. The adherents of the ...

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Xerxes II and Sogdianus

Xerxes II (Old Persian KhÅ¡ayÃ-rÅ¡Ã-) and Sogdianus: kings of the ancient Achaemenid empire. Xerxes ruled forty five days in the first months of 423 BCE; Sogdianus ruled for six months and fifteen days. Our only source for the reign of Xerxes II and Sogdianus is the Greek author Ctesias of Cnidus, one of the most unreliable writers from Antiquity. ...

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History of Alexander the Great

Alexander is born in Pella, the Macedonian capital, at about the time his father becomes king of Macedonia. Philip II's expansion of the kingdom, an unfolding saga of glory and excitement, is Alexander's boyhood. At an early age he proves himself well equipped to share in these military adventures. He is only sixteen when he is left in charge of Ma...

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Cyrus

Cyrus (Old Persian Kuruš; Hebrew Kores): founder of the Achaemenid empire. He was born about 600 BCE as the son of Cambyses I, the king of the Persian kingdom called Anšan. During Cambyses' reign, the Persians were vassals of the Median leader Astyages....

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Cyaxares

Cyaxares (Persian Uvakhšatara, Akkadian Umakištar): name of a king of the Medes, who may have reigned from c.625 to c.585. The only narrative about the reign of Cyaxares can be found in the first book of the Histories by the Greek researcher Herodotus (c.480-c.429). He writes that the Median leader Phraortes....

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Darius II Nothus

Darius II Nothus: Achaemenid king of the Persian Empire, ruled from 423 to 404....

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Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great (ca.600 - 529 BCE) was a towering figure in the history of mankind. As the "father of the Iranian nation", he was the first world leader to be referred to as "The Great". Cyrus founded the first world empire - and the second Iranian dynastic empire (the Achaemenids) - after defeating the Median dynasty and uniting the Medes with the...

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Astyages

Astyages (Akkadian IÅ¡tumegu): last king of Media, son of king Cyaxares, dethroned 550 BCE. Most information on Astyages can be found in the second part of the first book of the Histories by the Greek researcher Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century, hundred years after Astyages' reign. However, he is almost our only source, and it is inevitabl...

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Parthian Rulers Index

In main, the chronologies of Frye [The History of Ancient Iran (1984), pp. 209ff, 360] and Sellwood [An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia, 1980, 2nd ed.] are followed with some modification. Specific changes include revisions to the early kings following Koshelenko's theory of descent based on information found in the Parthian ostraca of Nisa....

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