【Introduction】
When it comes to the word "Father of the Nation", no matter which country the people, there should be reverence and solemnity in their hearts, after all, the people who can have the title of "Father of the Nation" are basically pioneers of dynastic changes and the founders of the current country. In modern society, the "fathers" of each country are basically modern figures, but there is such a country in the world, and its citizens generally regard an ancient person living in the 6th century BC as the father of the country. From the perspective of modern society, this is undoubtedly incredible. So, which ancient figure had such charm that even after more than two thousand years, it still makes the people of today's people have great respect for him?
This country is Iran in West Asia, and the "father of the nation" they revere is the Persian monarch Cyrus II, known as "Cyrus the Great", who started with a small country located in the southwest of present-day Iran, gradually annexed the then powerful countries of Medes, Lydia and Babylon, unified most of the ancient Middle East, and established a huge empire from the Mediterranean sea to India in the east - the Persian Empire. The dynasty he founded was later known as the Achaemenid dynasty, also known as the First Persian Empire. Until it was conquered by Alexander the Great, it was the world's largest empire.
▲ Territory of the Achaemenid dynasty
As the founder of this glorious empire, Cyrus the Great's life is very strange. Most of the modern information about Cyrus the Great is derived from the greek "father of history", the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, according to this "father of history", Cyrus the Great was not born into the Persian royal family, but through the Medes to gain power, he has medes blood. Although scholars waved warning flags when Herodotus discussed the Persians, and even Herodotus recorded some stories of the conflicting Cyrus, scholars were receptive to Cyrus's origins—Cyrus was a member of the nobility, but not a member of the royal family. Cyrus, on the other hand, may also have been the fourth king of Anshan (i.e. Tali-Malyan). His position was established when he became ruler of the Persian kingdom in 559 BC.
▲ Statue of Herodotus
Anshan was a city in the ancient Persian Gulf region, located in the Zagros Mountains, near Parsa (present-day Fars, southwestern Iran) on the Plain of Malvdasht, and has been one of the capitals of Elam since the third millennium BC. Around 700 BC, Achaemenes, the ancestor of the Achaemenid family, established the Persian kingdom centered on the city of Anshan, but was still constrained by Elam. The city of Anshan was once under Assyrian rule and then probably under the control of the Medes. Modern belief holds that the kingdom did not begin to be called Persia until the establishment of the empire.
▲ The image of Cyrus the Great painted by the present people
Around 550 BC, Cyrus defeated his maternal grandfather, the Medes king Atiargas (also known as Ishtum), captured him, captured the capital of the Median kingdom, Ecbanatan, and then became king of the Medes. At this point, Cyrus gained power over the Persians and Medes- tribes associated with Iran, as well as over the countries where the Medes held power. The Medes stretched as far as present-day Tehran, westward to the Hales River on the Lydia border, and Cappadocia was also under Cyrus rule.
This event was the first recorded conquest in the history of the Achaemenid dynasty, but for this conquest, the records of the three different channels varied greatly. The first theory is that in the dream of the King of Babylon, the god Marduk led the good king Cyrus to a successful victory over Astiages. The second theory comes from the Babylonian Chronicle, "Astiages gathered his army and marched on Cyrus II, the king of Ansan, whose army rose up and captured Astiages." ”
The third is the record of Herodotus. Herodotus's version differs from the other two, and Astiagus was betrayed in this war, as Astiagus once killed the son of his close confidant Halpagos and cooked it into a dish for Harpagos to eat. Whether Or not Astyages marched towards Annja, he would fail because he had been betrayed by his own people.
Map of Medes and Lydia
King Croesus, known for his wealth, ruled the Lydian kingdom of Asia Minor. The kingdom of Lydia, located west of the River Hales and capitalized in Sardis, had its kings in control of the Greek cities of Ionia and received tribute from these regions. In 547 BC, Croesus crossed the Halles River into Cappadocia and invaded Cyrus' territory, and the war began.
Croesus burned the first Persian city he encountered, Putria (present-day central Turkey), and Cyrus's Persian army soon arrived on the battlefield, where the two sides began to engage. The spear-wielding cavalry of the Lydian army was very powerful, but Cyrus's army had the upper hand in numbers. After a battle, both sides had casualties, it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat, and Croesus thought that dragging on was not the way to go, so he decided to withdraw.
▲ Oil painting depicting Cyrus the Great's march
What Croesus did not expect was that Cyrus, in order to prevent him from gathering his troops to attack Persia again, actually took the initiative to attack and led his army directly into Lydia itself. The hastily fought by the Lydians were defeated and eventually fought against the Persians on the Simbra Plains, on the outskirts of the capital Sardis. The Lydians still wanted to rely on the spear cavalry for superiority, but Cyrus eventually scored a game.
Cyrus adopted the strategy of the general Halpagos, gathering the camels carrying food and luggage with the army, unloading everything on their backs, and then equipping them with soldiers who were good at riding camels, and walking at the front of the army, followed by infantry and cavalry. Lydia's horse team met the camels and immediately collapsed, and Chloessos's last hopes were dashed. Cyrus adopted this method because horses were afraid of camels and could not stand seeing them or smelling them.
▲ Persian camel cavalry image painting
After all, the Lydians were the most belligerent people in West Asia, jumping off their horses and engaging the Persian army in hand-to-hand combat, with heavy losses on both sides. Eventually, the Lydians were defeated and fled back to the city of Sardis. After two weeks of siege, the Persian army climbed the cliff and invaded Sardis, and the kingdom of Lydia was destroyed. In the same year (547 BC), Cyrus conquered Uraltu. According to Herodotus, he also conquered Battria. To some extent, he conquered Parthia, Dragiana, Araa, Chorasia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Gandhi, Sitia, Satagedia, Aracosia and Macca.
The next important known event was the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Because he allowed to believe in both Marduk (the God of the Babylonians) and God (the only God believed by the Jews), he was embraced by many and recognized as a leader. Cyrus's policy of religion was tolerant, allowing conquered people to worship the gods they believed in, and allowing clergy of any religion to preach on the lands of the Persian Empire.
Restoration of Solomon's Temple (the first Jewish temple).
Just half a century ago, Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, conquered the Kingdom of Judea twice, burned the Jehovah's Temple of Judaism, and sent a large number of commoners, craftsmen, priests, and nobles to Babylon, who were known as the "Prisoners of Babylon." While the Jews lamented that their future was uncertain, they received an edict from Cyrus, who allowed them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and to return to the Jews the large quantities of gold and silver sacrifices that Nebuchadnezzar II had plundered. The Jews were so grateful that in the Bible they referred to Cyrus as "the instrument of God, and God promised him to "bring the nations before him" and "to open the gates before him." Many scholars believe that the king of Ancient England recorded in the Biblical book of Ezra was Cyrus the Great.
▲ Portrait of the Prisoner of Babylon
In 530 BC, Cyrus sent an army to conquer the Massagtai, a tribe ruled by the widowed Queen Tomiris, who were active in the vast steppes of Central Asia on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. During the war, the Queen's Son led his troops to rob the camp, and Cyrus annihilated the enemy army and captured the Queen's Son, who immediately committed suicide in shame. When the queen learned of this, she sent an emissary to tell Cyrus, "I swear by the sun, the master of the Masaghethi, that no matter how bloodthirsty and thirsty you may be, I will make you drink enough blood." After a fierce battle, the Masaguetes were victorious, and the queen found Cyrus's body, cut off his head, and put it in a leather sack filled with blood, and she finally fulfilled her vow to let Cyrus "drink blood.".
▲ Cyrus the Great Mausoleum
After Cyrus's death, his son Cambyses II succeeded to the throne, and he sent an army to defeat the Masaghtai, transported his father's body, and buried him solemnly in his former capital, Pasargad (in present-day Fars Province, Iran). Although Cyrus was defeated and died, he won the eternal respect of future generations. 200 years after the death of Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great of the Crusade, passing through Pasargard, not only did not destroy his mausoleum, but repaired it, and the young emperor expressed his admiration for the great men of the past in this way.
【Conclusion】
Judging from our Chinese conception, this emperor undoubtedly did not get a good death, but as a warrior, being able to wrap the body of Ma Ge on the battlefield is undoubtedly the highest reward he hopes to receive. Cyrus fought all his life and left a great battle achievement, but the place he went was not a scene of mourning. In his lifetime, the emperor conquered more than a dozen countries, large and small, but the civilization represented by these countries was not destroyed by his conquest. Even on the contrary, many civilizations that have disappeared or survived have been revitalized by his arrival, which has to be said to be amazing.
Resources:
Dusinberre ERM. 2013. Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lendering J. 1996 [last modified 2015]. Cyrus the Great. Livius.org. [Accessed 02 July 2016]
Young J, T. Cuyler 1988. The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses