Cyrus the Great (590 BC or 580 BC - approximately 529 BC), [8-10] Persian: کوروش بزرگ； Greek: Κύρος； Modern Persian: ㄆㄆㄆ; Traditional translation to Greek Κρο The transliteration of Cyrus in Latin form. Originally a small leader in southwestern Iran, he won a series of battles and defeated three empires, namely Midea, Lydia, and New Babylon. He unified parts of the ancient Middle East and established a grand empire from India to the Mediterranean. Contemporary Iranians revered Cyrus as the "father of Iran". [1]
Cyrus the Great was the founder of the ancient Persian Empire and the first Persian emperor (reigned from 550 BC to 530 BC). The country he founded has a vast territory, from the Aegean Sea to the Indus River, from the Indus River to the Mediterranean, and from the Nile to the Caucasus. In his autobiographical inscription, he proudly said, "I, Cyrus, am the king of the world, the great king

In the 7th century BC, there were two groups of Iranian speaking tribes living in present-day western Iran, with Persia in the south and Medea in the north. In 612 BC, Midea and Babylon together destroyed the Assyrian Empire, and Midea became known as the Empire, becoming one of the most powerful countries in West Asia, with the Persians becoming their vassals. Cyrus was a descendant of Persians who intermarried with the Medes.

Character's background
The bizarre background of Cyrus, known as the "father of history" in the West, is detailed in his masterpiece "History" by Herodotus. In a dream, King Astyages of Midi dreamed that the descendants of his daughter Mundane would seize the throne and become the overlord of Asia. So, he decided to marry his daughter to the lower status and gentle personality of the Persian prince Gambisis, in order to deprive his daughter's descendants of the right to claim the throne of Midea. But when his daughter was pregnant, the king was awakened by a nightmare: he dreamed of grape vines growing from his daughter's belly, covering the entire Asia. To prevent unforeseen circumstances, the king decided to execute his grandson as soon as he was born.
This newborn baby is Cyrus. He was handed over to the king's trusted minister, Harpagos, from the beginning of his life. The minister dared not do it himself, so he handed over the child to a shepherd and ordered him to abandon it in the wilderness. The shepherd's wife happened to have just given birth to a dead baby, so they left behind Cyrus and replaced him with their own dead baby. The wife of the shepherd is called Spaco, which means "mother wolf" in the Midian language. Therefore, there are legends in the future that Cyrus was nurtured by a mother wolf during his childhood.
When Cyrus was 10 years old, he played the game of pretending to be a king with children from the same village. Cyrus, who was elected as king by the children, whipped the son of a rebellious nobleman. The matter became more and more serious, so that King Astyages himself intervened in the investigation, and Cyrus' identity was finally discovered. The court priest said that this child has become a king in the game and will not become a king again. Astyages finally dispelled his doubts and sent Cyrus back to Persia.
During the battle between Midi and Babylon, Cyrus once led the Persian army to fight for Astyages. At that time, Cyrus, who was less than 20 years old, used beautiful cavalry to attack and seize the Babylonian city of Haran.

Conquering Midi
In 559 BC, Cyrus became the leader of the Persians, unifying the 10 tribes of Persia. Harpagos, the minister who had been ordered to execute Cyrus, began to contact him and asked him to rise up to attack Midea, while he himself was appointed as an ally. Originally, when the king discovered that Halpagus had not killed Cyrus, he was enraged and killed the minister's only son, who was 13 years old, and cooked a dish for Halpagus to eat in person. According to the historian Herodotus mentioned above, this minister was "not intimidated, nor did he lose his self-control", and his deep-seated hatred made him calmly contemplate how to avenge the murder of his son.
In 553 BC, Cyrus rebelled against Midi. In order to persuade the Persians to follow him, he ordered all Persians to gather with sickles and let them reclaim more than 3 kilometers of land within a day. After completing this task, Cyrus issued a second order to gather them after bathing and changing clothes the next day. Cyrus slaughtered all his father's sheep, goats, and cows, and prepared wine and various delicacies to reward the entire Persian army. The next day, the Persians gathered on the grass and feasted to their heart's content. At this point, Cyrus asked them if they liked the first day of labor or the pleasure of the second day. Upon hearing that everyone had chosen the latter, Cyrus said, "All Persians, if you listen to me, you will enjoy countless happiness like this day; if you do not listen to me, you will suffer countless hardships like last day." The Persians, led by Cyrus, rose up to attack Midi.
The war to conquer Midea lasted for three years. In 550 BC, Cyrus finally captured the capital of Midea and officially established the Persian Empire. Cyrus belonged to the Achaemenid family of Persians, hence the empire he founded was also known as the Achaemenid dynasty.
Conquering Lydia
The king of Lydia, the strong western neighbor of Persia, Chrysos, saw that Cyrus was becoming increasingly powerful and was very worried. He wanted to take advantage of the unstable establishment of Persia and send troops to destroy it. Before embarking on the expedition, he sent people to the famous Greek temple of Delphi Apollo to pray for a divine metaphor. The divine metaphor he received was: If he sent troops to attack, a great empire would be destroyed. He was overjoyed and asked for a divine metaphor again. The answer he received was: "If a mule turns into a King of Midea, you weak legged Lydia must flee along the rocky River Hermes." Since the King of Midea can never be a mule, Klausus boldly launched an attack on Persia in 547 BC.
Chlosos burned down the first Persian city he met, Putria (now central Türkiye), and Cyrus, who came to the news, fought with Lydia here (Putria Battle). The cavalry equipped with spears in Lydia's army had the upper hand in technology, but Cyrus's army had the advantage in number and used new weapon high platform artillery (it was also said to include sickle chariots, but according to scholars' research, the sickle chariots should actually have appeared during the reign of Arta Xerxes I, which was the product of the Persian Empire's response to the Greek style dense heavy infantry formation after two failed expeditions to Greece). There were casualties between the two sides, and there was no difference in victory or defeat, so Kloissos decided to withdraw.
To the surprise of Chloissus, Cyrus took the initiative to attack Lydia in order to prevent him from gathering more troops to attack Persia. The Lydians and Persians, who rushed to the battle, decided to fight in the Simberla Plain (Simberla Battle) on the outskirts of the capital Sadis (now western Türkiye). The Lydians still wanted to rely on spear cavalry to gain an advantage, but Cyrus came up with a clever plan. He gathered camels carrying food and luggage with the army, equipped with cavalry, and walked at the forefront of the army, with infantry and cavalry closely following. Lydia's horse team met a camel and immediately turned around and fled. According to Herodotus' "History", horses are afraid of camels and cannot tolerate them when they see or smell them. After all, the Lydians were the most brave and belligerent people in West Asia, jumping off their horses to engage in hand to hand combat with the Persian army. In the end, the Lydians were defeated and fled back to the city of Sades.

After two weeks of siege, the Persian army climbed the cliff and attacked Sadis, causing the Kingdom of Lydia to perish. Only then did the fallen king Kloissos understand the true meaning of the Delphi metaphor: it was his own empire that was destroyed after he launched an attack on Persia, while the mule was a metaphor for Cyrus because he was a mixed race of Persians and Mides.

Conquering Babylon
A completely different fate
In the spring of 546 BC, a large number of Jews still lived in Babylon, the world's largest city at that time. Their homeland Jerusalem has been demolished by the army of the New Babylonian dynasty, and the temple has also been razed to the ground. As for themselves, they were forced to collectively migrate to the world center of the two river basins, becoming slaves to the new masters of the country.
This situation may not be unfamiliar to Jews. Nearly a thousand years ago, the prophet Moses fled from Egypt with a group of similarly situated ancestors, breaking free from his previous status as a Pharaoh's slave. But this time the situation is different, and the number of Jews in the vast city of Babylon seems not significant. Their community was also diluted by the settlements of Babylonians, the new conquerors of Chaldeans, and the merchants of Phoenicians. Therefore, apart from a few still eloquent sacrifices, they lack a unified and powerful core in reality. Therefore, to break free from this famous prisoner of Babylon in history, external help is needed.
It was also in this year that the Persian Empire's army had captured the powerful Lydia in the western part of the Asia Minor Peninsula. So far, Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian Empire, expanded his territory from the east of the Zagros Mountains to the east bank of the Aegean Sea in a short time. Two thirds of the world's central civilization circle, once divided by Midi, Babylon and Lydia, has now fallen into his hands.
Cyrus, who was not satisfied with this, was still instigating larger scale expansion. The northern Iranian nobles who once supported him in defeating the last monarch of the Midea Empire also needed more fiefdoms and spoils to reward their efforts. In this situation, Cyrus made Babylon in the south his ultimate goal. But before the conditions are ripe, he still needs to solve many small and medium-sized forces in the surrounding areas.
So, when the Babylonian monarch began preparing for the upcoming war, the Persian Empire's army was spreading its troops across the hinterland of Asia. Cyrus personally led the main force eastward to conquer the vast agricultural and pastoral mixed production areas east of the Iranian Plateau. Halpagus, the nobleman of the Medes who helped him rise to power, led a side army mainly composed of the Medes and continued to operate along the coast of Asia Minor. The former will conquer Khorasan, Sistan, Bactria, and the Indus River within a few years, with the front pointing directly towards the Indus River basin. The latter defeated the Greek city-states and other ethnic groups distributed along the coast one by one during this period.
As the Jews continued to pray under the tyranny of Babylon, their future savior was still on a vast battlefield thousands of miles away, facing enemies using various weapons and tactics. This continuous tempering transformed the Persian army into the strongest military force in the world at that time.
Internal and external dilemmas
As the last monarch of the New Babylonian Empire, Naponides had encountered internal and external difficulties since his accession to the throne. Nebuchadnezzar II, the powerful monarch, left him a huge regime spanning from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. It also brought many opponents who almost surrounded the later generations.
Before the sudden rise of the Persian Empire, the Babylonians had to face the challenges of the Medes Empire in the northern Assyrian plain. Both sides had a pleasant cooperation in the uprising that overturned the hegemony of the Assyrian Empire. But as the common enemy fell, conflicts between the two new forces quickly emerged. The strategic location in the northern part of the two rivers is the first target to bear the brunt. As a result, Cyrus, who was still serving in the Midea army, experienced the joy of defeating the enemy for the first time here.
The Babylonians, who had lost their strategic strongholds, quickly deployed again in the Persian uprising led by Cyrus. Their army heading north to Assyria successfully attracted and dispersed the attention of the Midian court. But Nabonid did not anticipate that the new Persian Empire was more expansionary than the previous Mides. The ancient countries of Elam, Armenia, Cappadocia, and Lydia, which were scattered around them, all quickly collapsed. Anyone with some political common sense understands that the southward movement of the Persian army is only a matter of time.
Another problem with Nabonid occurred within the city of Babylon. Since the era of Hammurabi, the sacrificial class, which held religious privileges, was the most tenacious force in Babylon. The contradiction between the sacrificial class and the military nobility often helps external enemies to undermine the foundation of power from within. Despite the influx of a large number of outsiders during the Nebuchadnezzar era, the king was still unable to establish a core force that could confront the sacrificial class.
The disheartened Nabonid even resorted to supporting new religious forces. At first glance, he fell in love with the Protestant denomination on the edge of the southern desert, whose followers were mostly Aramaic people of the same lineage as the Chaldean conquerors. As a result, the majestic King of Babylon often left his royal city and surrendered to the city of Nabatai in the southwest. The local area was also an important transit point for the ancient frankincense trade, which could provide Babylon with a huge amount of income. Therefore, he continuously donated money to the temples there and encouraged local worshippers to preach in many cities outside of Babylon.
If there were no strong interruptions from external forces, Bonid's plan might have been successful. But the Babylonian indigenous priests who control wealth and connections will not sit idly by. The Persians, who were eyeing closely, did not give Naponid enough time to integrate internal resources.

A large army is pressing the border
In the autumn of 540 BC, Cyrus had already completed the war against various surrounding regions in Asia and prepared a large amount of food and supplies for the war against Babylon. A force from all over the world was called up around the core strength of the Persians. These actions obviously cannot escape the eyeliner of the southern Babylonians.
After nearly 12 years of hard work, the combat mode of the Persian Empire army was basically established at that time. The indigenous army, founded on infantry, consists of a large number of mountain infantry skilled in using composite bows and spears. They are also equipped with shields, battle axes, and short swords to assist in hand to hand combat. On the battlefield, these Persian infantry are accustomed to forming a 10 person deep square formation, with the first 5 soldiers responsible for hand combat and the last 5 soldiers providing projection cover. The Midi and Hilkani people, who were equipped similarly to them, were often stationed around them. Greek and Assyrian people heavy infantry became an important complement to close combat.
In contrast, the number of Persian cavalry at this time was not large, and their combat effectiveness was not considered strong. The cavalry in the Cyrus army was mainly composed of the Medes and nomadic tribes further north. They were influenced by the Scythian cavalry and were extensively equipped with deadly grassland composite bows. The elite cavalry is equipped with a full set of armor and will also equip their horses with chest type protective gear. They can engage in close combat with spears and battle axes, as well as throw javelins and bend bows to shoot arrows. This is an important military force that the southern Babylonian army did not possess.
In addition, many armies from the mountainous regions of Asia Minor and the hinterland of Inner Asia were also under the command of Cyrus. Among them, there are both itinerant infantry skilled in javelin warfare and Central Asian archers who also use composite bows and short spears. With cavalry provided by their respective ethnic leaders as a supplement. Many poorly equipped coolies and servants joined the army as engineers, creating siege equipment and building transportation routes for the new World King. The animal force team supporting the logistics of the whole army extends from Akbatan to the east of the Zagros Mountains to the west of the Euphrates River.
The Babylonian army is much more traditional. As descendants of barbarians from the desert regions of the south, the Chaldeans who established the dynasty actually accepted a complete military system of the Assyrian Empire. The main heavy infantry used huge shields to cover the front and launched an attack in a column with a thickness of 100 people. The elite armored archers attack on both wings and are protected by light spearmen. Babylon is famous for its abundance of archers, and therefore there is no shortage of large projective firepower in their army.
But compared to the cavalry units dominated by the Persians, the same type of unit in the Babylonian army is very useless. As an old way to make up for the lack of mobility on the flanks, the four horse heavy chariots left by the Assyrian people will still be entrusted with heavy responsibilities. This made them very vulnerable in the field battle.
Of course, since the time of Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonians have been using other means to solve the plight of their weak cavalry. The fortifications, similar to the ancient Great Wall of China, were built from the banks of the Tigris River in the east to the Euphrates River in the west. This section of the Great Wall divides Mesopotamia in two. Due to its initial use as a cavalry force to resist the Midi Empire, it was vividly referred to as the Great Wall of Midi. In front of the entire construction, there is also a canal cover that is convenient for inland water transportation and excavation.
If the Persian army went south from their base in the Assyrian plain, the long wall of Midea would tightly block them. In that era without crossbows and catapults, bulky city hammers and carts needed to cross canals in order to be effective. Any enemy launching a strong attack will suffer heavy losses under the firepower of the defenders.
the sucker
Cyrus clearly did not want his army to wear out too much during the siege. Although he had engineers from Lydia, Greece, and Assyria in his hands, he still carried out ingenious attacks and combinations.
This year, the Persian army began large-scale geotechnical operations on the Jindes River in the northwest of the Iranian Plateau. That is also an important tributary of the Tigris River. Cyrus had originally planned to have the army cross the river using rafts and bridges, but after riding recklessly into the water, he found that the river was too turbulent. So he ordered the excavation of up to 360 trenches on both sides to gradually discharge the river water. During the entire construction period, there was another Persian army, mainly composed of servants, heading directly south from the north to confront the Babylonian defenders along the long wall of Midi, attracting their attention.
The following year, in the autumn of 539 BC, the Persian army, which had completed the earthwork work, quickly crossed the south of the Jindes River. The defenders stationed around the Midi Wall were panicked, and they were just as helpless as the French who were outflanked by the German army to the Maginot Line more than 2000 years later. After crossing the river and heading south, the troops of Cyrus quickly reached their first target, the city of Obis, which echoed the defense line of the Great Wall of Midea across the river. This city is an important stronghold on the flanks of the Babylonian defense line. Due to concerns that the Persian army would bypass this area, the defenders took the initiative to leave the city to engage.
The subsequent Battle of Obis turned into a one-sided massacre. The Babylonian army adopts the traditional Assyrian military array, uses chariots and light cavalry to cover the flanks, and uses the central breakthrough of heavy infantry to break through the defense line of the other side. But the bulky chariot was quickly caught between Persian and Midian cavalry and quickly defeated. The light cavalry covering the chariot were also killed by Iranian cavalry. The various medium and long-range firepower of Persian infantry also successfully suppressed the Babylonians. When the light infantry were defeated, the heavy infantry column that persisted in fighting was surrounded by various Persian ethnic forces. Even with heavy armor and large shields, it is impossible to maintain a tight formation even after physical exhaustion.
In the end, the main defenders of Obis City were massacred. The flank defense of the long wall at Midi is completely defeated, and the defenders on the entire fortification will become turtles in a jar. Nabonid immediately ordered the entire army to retreat from the north, while he led his main army northward to rescue. Cyrus successfully crossed the Tigris River, joined forces with his servants, and quickly pursued south.
But the reaction speed of the Babylonian army still exceeded Cyrus' estimate. After the main army led by Nabonid arrived, they established a second line of defense near Sipar in the south. The defenders quickly constructed a new temporary long wall using the soil excavated on site, and used the excavated trenches as cover. Cyrus had to fight circuitously again. After leaving his servants to join the army, he crossed the Euphrates River with the most elite troops and directly killed the main city of Babylon.

To outsmart Babylon
In the late autumn of 539 BC, the Persian army prepared to besiege Babylon, the world's largest city. But they found that this magnificent city across the Euphrates River was too big. Their limited military strength is simply not enough to complete this task. Although Nabonid brought a large number of troops to the northern defense line, the number of defenders and temporarily mobilized militias remaining in the city still exceeded the rapidly advancing units of the Persians. Moreover, Babylon's own defense design was also the best of its time.
A century after the Persians took the city of Babylon, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus visited this renowned city. At that time, although Babylon had already been dismantled by the Persians due to repeated rebellions, the huge ruins left were still astonishing to the father of ancient Greek history.
The whole city crosses the banks of the Euphrates River in a huge square. The city wall made of mud brick and asphalt is not only tall but also thick. Its width is enough for a chariot to run on the city wall. In order to protect one's own city wall from foreign enemies, the towers on the city wall are often built in pairs along the front and rear sides of the city wall. This level of rigor was unparalleled in the world at that time.
Within the vast moat, there are eight city gates named after the gods of the city's faith. The city gate itself is made of bronze and is very sturdy. The largest is the North Gate named after Isita, the goddess of war and fertility in Babylon. The gate is adjacent to the Euphrates River, and the channel connecting the moat is 1 mile wide, which also runs through the whole city from the side of the gate. Because of the importance of the gate, Nebuchadnezzar II repaired the facilities of the gate three times and built a defense network consisting of four towers.
As for the interior of the city, there are also such solid buildings as the royal palace and the temple of the main god Marduk, which are responsible for guarding the city. The average height of ordinary residential buildings and complex streets in the city, which can reach 3-4 floors, are favorable support for the defenders to carry out street warfare defense. Therefore, to take Babylon, a strong attack is not a good choice.
But Babylon is also struggling to meet the material shortages faced by many super large cities. In addition to the reserve supplies in the city, there are agricultural areas of varying sizes to the east, north, and south of the inner city. These fields are protected by the sturdy walls of the outer city. Even if surrounded, agricultural production can still be carried out within the city of Babylon. The high-quality cultivated land in the local area can ensure that the wheat harvest reaches 200 to 300 times that of the seeds. Figs, olives, grapes, and date palm trees can also provide various other rations.
Since both the strong attack and the siege had little effect, Cyrus could only use means to gain wisdom. The Persian army began digging trenches to the north and east of the city, and then built several large mounds of soil from the trenches. On these mounds, the Persians pushed up several two-story heavy tanks to deal with the archers on the walls of Babylon. Near the Isitamen near the river bank, Cyrus ordered people to cut down a large number of palm trees to make a siege tower. In the eyes of the defenders, all of this indicates that the Persians are preparing for a strong attack. But they did not notice that the water level of the moat was slowly decreasing.
Whenever night fell, Cyrus would send some weak troops to dig new trenches on the riverbank to the north. One of the largest is the diversion channel for flood discharge, which diverts the water of Euphrates River towards a large marsh nearby. This swamp was originally an artificial lake formed by the Babylonians to divert water for flood discharge. With the passage of time, this artificial lake gradually became a swamp and became the best reservoir for the Persian army to dig trenches and discharge floods. Due to the fact that this place is not within the visual range of the city of Babylon, and the engineering is mostly carried out at night, the defenders inside the city of Babylon have been unaware of it.
Soon the religious festival of Babylon will come. When the defenders and citizens entered the sleepless night of joy with the help of food and alcohol, the Persian army opened the trench and the channel of the Euphrates River. With the rapid decline of the water level, Cyrus also divided his troops to attack the city on both sides. A junior division was sent to the west to attack the western city of Babylon on the west bank of the Euphrates River, while Cyrus led the most elite troops back to the south of the city, ready to drill into the city wall from the river channel where they did not set up a blockade area.
The Persian army walked along the wide river, past the unclosed gates, and the cult group that had already colluded with them immediately welcomed them into the city. The local army in the west also took the opportunity to attack together, and with the help of internal agents, they captured the weak defense of the western city area. Ironically, due to the noise of the revelry and the city being too large, the Babylonians in the eastern district did not yet realize that the western district had fallen. When the Persian army continued to attack the streets of the eastern city district, the soldiers and civilians in the city realized that a great crisis was imminent. The invader smeared palm oil on their arrows, ignited them, and fired at the wooden parts of the house. Accompanied by the raging flames, the Persian army's offensive swept through the entire city.

The Rebirth of Jews
In the chaos, Nabonid returned to Babylon with an army from the east gate of the city. Due to uncertainty as to whether the Persian circuitous forces were a small detachment that distracted him, the troops brought back by the king were very limited. After being fiercely attacked by the Persian army, the group hid in the palace to defend themselves.
At this time, the Babylonian cult class, which was dissatisfied with the king, continued to exert its effects. They offered their own Marduk Temple, and then opened the gate of the palace from inside. The Persians swarmed in, and Naponid's attendants and guards were swept away by the red eyed invaders. The king's son Belshazzar was killed, and the king himself was captured. The New Babylonian Kingdom, which was in its heyday, also passed away.
When Cyrus occupied Babylon, he immediately reached a consensus with the city's worshippers and righted Marduk, the main Babylonian god whom Nabonid had neglected for many years. In return, Cyrus was declared by the priests as the messenger of God and the king of Babylon. The work of restoring the operation of the city was carried out, and the city walls and gates that were damaged during Persian attacks were repaired after leaving. The funds used came from the treasury left by Nabonid, and the workers hired were also local Babylonians. Everything seemed to have gradually returned to its glorious past.
Afterwards, Cyrus, as the king of Babylon, ordered the remaining Babylonian army to cease resistance. Three weeks later, the army defending the northern front began to surrender. After completing the disarming process, they returned to the city from the Isita Gate in the north. Cyrus, on the other hand, relentlessly dispatched troops to various areas under Babylonian control, making the Syrian and Lebanese coasts a top priority. After these cities surrendered one after another, Cyrus began to allocate troops from different ethnic groups to stationed in the local area. The Jews in Babylon began to catch his eye.
For Jews, Cyrus' conquest and ruling methods can be considered a gospel that descended from the sky. The Babylonian monarchy that enslaved them was destroyed, and they themselves became important pawns in the Persian Empire. Cyrus lifted their imprisonment and allowed them all to return to their homeland to settle.
Under the new royal decree, these Jews began to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem, and suppressed the indigenous Jewish descendants who remained in the area, becoming the actual controllers of the Holy Land. This rebuilt new Jewish kingdom was a loyal ally of the imperial masters during the Persian Empire. They regarded Cyrus as the savior and gave him high praise. At the same time, it also supported many garrisons for Persia's later rule in Egypt. Cyrus was the King of Cyrus in the Bible and the Book of Ezra.
Death
The threat from Persia always comes from both sides, but it lacks the ability to fight on both sides simultaneously. After the stability of the Western Front, Cyrus was able to draw on his energy to deal with the nomads from the northeast. In 530 BC, he sent troops to conquer the Massagatai people on the vast grasslands of Central Asia on the east coast of the Caspian Sea. They were led by the widowed Queen Tomyris.
Cyrus set up camp, leaving only part of the army to guard, and led the peloton to retreat quietly. The son of Queen Masagtai led his troops to rob the camp, kill the remaining Persian soldiers, and then had a banquet in place. Cyrus returned to annihilate the enemy and captured the queen's son. The prince committed suicide in shame and anger. The Queen sent an envoy to Cyrus, saying, "I swear by the sun, the master of the Massagatai people, that no matter how thirsty you may be for blood, I will make you drink it to the fullest
The great war between the two sides was the most brutal battle that Cyrus had ever experienced in his life. After the archers on both sides had fired all their arrows, the two armies engaged in hand to hand combat, and the ultimate victory belonged to the Masagtai people. The Persian army was almost completely annihilated, and Cyrus was killed in battle. Queen Massagatai found the body of Cyrus, cut off his head, and placed it in a bloody leather bag. She fulfilled her oath by making Cyrus "drink blood to the fullest".
Later, the son of Cyrus, Gambius II, inherited the throne and defeated the tribe, bringing back the body of his father. The body of Cyrus was buried in the former capital of Pasargad (located in present-day Fars Province, Iran). He has earned permanent respect. 200 years later, Alexander the Great, who had conquered the Persian Empire, marched eastward from Greece and not only did not destroy his tomb, but also ordered repairs. The Mausoleum of Cyrus has stood firm for 2500 years.
There are four theories about the death of Cyrus that have been passed down from ancient times: (1) According to Herodotus, he was killed in battle among the Masagothais; (2) According to the Babylonian monk Belosus in his works on Babylonian history, he was killed in battle with the Darnazis east of the Caspian Sea; (3) According to the Greek doctor and writer Ctesias' book "The Chronicles of Persia" (23 volumes, of which 1-3 volumes are Assyrian history, 4-6 volumes are Medes history, and the rest are Persian history, ending in 398 BC; the original work was lost, with only fragments left), he was seriously injured and died in the camp during the battle with the Debic people; (4) According to Xenophon's book "The Education of Cyrus", he did not die in battle, but lived for the rest of his life under normal circumstances. Most modern researchers believe that Herodotus' account of the death of Cyrus in battle is unreliable.