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155-639: When Cyrus the Great (550–530 BC) came to power, coinage was unfamiliar in his realm. Barter, and to some extent silver bullion , was used instead for trade. The practice of using silver bars for currency also seems to have been current in Central Asia from the 6th century. Cyrus the Great introduced coins to the Persian Empire after 546 BC, following his conquest of Lydia and the defeat of its king Croesus , whose father Alyattes had put in place

310-487: A "mighty king" and "an Achaemenian", which according to the bulk of scholarly opinion was engraved under Darius and considered as a later forgery by Darius. However, Cambyses II's maternal grandfather Pharnaspes is named by historian Herodotus as "an Achaemenian". Xenophon 's account in his Cyropædia names Cambyses's wife as Mandane and mentions Cambyses as king of Iran (ancient Persia). These agree with Cyrus's own inscriptions, as Anshan and Parsa were different names for

465-589: A Phrygian ruler there: Pteria's strategic location would have been useful in protecting the Lydian Empire from attacks from the east, and its proximity to the Royal Road would have made of the city an important centre from which caravans could be protected. Phrygia under Lydian rule would continue to be administered by its local elites, such as the ruler of Midas City who held Phrygian royal titles such as lawagetai (king) and wanaktei (commander of

620-583: A Phrygian state vassal to the Lydians which might have attempted to rebel against Lydian suzerainty and instead declare its allegiance to the new Persian Empire of Cyrus. Cyrus retaliated by intervening in Cappadocia and attacking the Lydians at Pteria in a battle in which Croesus was defeated. After this first battle, Croesus burnt down Pteria to prevent Cyrus from using its strategic location and returned to Sardis. However, Cyrus followed Croesus and defeated

775-605: A bare straw amount. According to Herodotus , Croesus encountered the Greek sage Solon and showed him his enormous wealth. Croesus, secure in his own wealth and happiness, asked Solon who the happiest man in the world was, and was disappointed by Solon's response that three had been happier than Croesus: Tellus , who died fighting for his country, and the brothers Kleobis and Biton who died peacefully in their sleep after their mother prayed for their perfect happiness because they had demonstrated filial piety by drawing her to

930-497: A campaign by Cyrus against Lydia around 547 BC during which he "marched against the country, killed its king, took his possessions, and put there a garrison of his own". However, the verb used in the Nabonidus Chronicle could be used both in the sense "to kill" and "to destroy as a military power", making any precise deduction of the fate of Croesus from it impossible. More recent studies have moreover concluded that

1085-533: A centre of operations for military actions against the Cimmerians , a nomadic people from the Pontic steppe who had invaded Western Asia , and attacked Lydia over the course of several invasions during which they killed Alyattes's great-grandfather Gyges , and possibly his grandfather Ardys and his father Sadyattes . As governor of Adramyttium, Croesus had to provide his father with Ionian Greek mercenaries for

1240-535: A daughter of Cyaxares might have been married to Croesus. Croesus continued these good relations with the Medes after he succeeded Alyattes and Astyages succeeded Cyaxares. Under Croesus's rule, Lydia continued its good relations started by Gyges with the Saite Egyptian kingdom, then ruled by the pharaoh Amasis II . Both Croesus and Amasis had common interests in fostering trade relations at Naucratis with

1395-427: A festival in an oxcart themselves. Solon goes on to explain that Croesus cannot be the happiest man because the fickleness of fortune means that the happiness of a man's life cannot be judged until after his death. Sure enough, Croesus' hubristic happiness was reversed by the tragic deaths of his accidentally killed son and, according to Ctesias , his wife's suicide at the fall of Sardis, not to mention his defeat at

1550-508: A figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology." The name of Croesus was not attested in contemporary inscriptions in the Lydian language . In 2019, D. Sasseville and K. Euler published a research of Lydian coins apparently minted during his rule, where the name of the ruler was rendered as Qλdãns . The name Croesus comes from the Latin transliteration of

1705-455: A great empire" should he attack Cyrus. This answer of the Delphian oracle remains one of the famous oracular statements from Delphi . Likely legendary were also the responses of the oracles of Delphi and Amphiaraus telling Croesus to ally with the strongest of all Greeks, whom Croesus found out to be the state to which he had previously offered the gold which they had used for the gilding of

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1860-423: A group of Achaemenian protectors called the "Magi", stationed nearby to protect the edifice from theft or damage. Years later, in the chaos created by Alexander the Great 's invasion of Persia and after the defeat of Darius III , Cyrus the Great's tomb was broken into and most of its luxuries were looted. When Alexander reached the tomb, he was horrified by the manner in which the tomb was treated, and questioned

2015-414: A honorific name meaning "The noble Karoś". Croesus was born in 620 BC to the king Alyattes of Lydia and one of his queens, a Carian noblewoman whose name is still unknown. Croesus had at least one full sister, Aryenis , as well as a half-brother named Pantaleon, born from a Ionian wife of Alyattes. Under his father's reign, Croesus had been a governor of Adramyttium, which Alyattes had rebuilt as

2170-722: A migratory event in which the Jews returned to the Land of Israel following Cyrus' establishment of Yehud Medinata and subsequently rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem , which had been destroyed by the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem . According to Isaiah 45:1 , Cyrus was anointed by Yahweh for this task as a biblical messiah ; he is the only non-Jewish figure to be revered in this capacity. In addition to his influence on traditions in both

2325-634: A military campaign against the Ionian city of Ephesus . The ruling dynasty of Ephesus had engaged in friendly relations with Lydia consolidated by diplomatic marriages from the reign of Gyges until that of Alyattes: the Ephesian tyrant Pindar, who had previously supported Pantaleon in the Lydian succession struggle, was the son of a daughter of Alyattes, and was thus a nephew of Croesus. After Pindar rejected an envoy by Croesus demanding Ephesus to submit to Lydia,

2480-473: A military campaign in Caria. During Croesus's tenure as governor of Adramyttium itself, a rivalry had developed between him and his step-brother Pantaleon, who might have been intended by Alyattes to be his successor. Following Alyattes's death in 585 BC, this rivalry became an open succession struggle out of which Croesus emerged victorious. Once Croesus's position as king was secure, he immediately launched

2635-610: A small minority, while most of the non-local coinage generally comes from the Greek realm, either from the independent Greek mainland or from the Greek colonies of Western Asia under the Achaemenid rule. For example, the Kabul hoard , in modern-day Afghanistan , included 30 coins from various Greek cities, about 33 Athenian coins and an Iranian imitation of an Athenian coin, only 9 royal Achaemenid silver coins (sigloi). There were also 29 locally minted coins and 14 punch-marked coins in

2790-598: A soldier's wage. This new coin became popular throughout all of the ancient world for more than 150 years. Around 395 BC, the Achaemenids, led by Satrap Pharnabazes , bribed Greek states by paying them tens of thousands of Darics in order to attack Sparta , which was then waging a campaign of destruction in Asia Minor under Agesilaus II . This started the Corinthian War . According to Plutarch , Agesilaus,

2945-408: A statue of the god Apollo, Sparta, shortly after its victory over its fellow Greek city-state of Argos in 547 BC. The claim of Herodotus that Croesus, Amasis, and Nabonidus formed a defensive alliance against Cyrus of Persia appears to have been a retroactive exaggeration of the existing diplomatic and trade relations between Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon. Croesus first attacked Pteria , the capital of

3100-402: A suffix of likeness. Karl Hoffmann has suggested a translation based on the meaning of an Indo-European root "to humiliate", and accordingly, the name "Cyrus" means "humiliator of the enemy in verbal contest". Another possible Iranian derivation would mean "the young one, child", similar to Kurdish kur ("son, little boy") or Ossetian i-gur-un ("to be born") and kur (young bull). In

3255-473: A table with golden supports, inside of which the body of Cyrus the Great was interred. Upon his resting place, was a covering of tapestry and drapes made from the best available Babylonian materials, utilizing fine Median worksmanship; below his bed was a fine red carpet, covering the narrow rectangular area of his tomb. Translated Greek accounts describe the tomb as having been placed in the fertile Pasargadae gardens, surrounded by trees and ornamental shrubs, with

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3410-570: A warning to cease his encroachment (a warning which she stated she expected he would disregard anyway), Tomyris challenged him to meet her forces in honorable warfare, inviting him to a location in her country a day's march from the river, where their two armies would formally engage each other. He accepted her offer, but, learning that the Massagetae were unfamiliar with wine and its intoxicating effects, he set up and then left camp with plenty of it behind, taking his best soldiers with him and leaving

3565-537: A weight of 10.7 grams, a standard initially created by Croesus, which was then adopted by the Persians and became commonly known as the "Persic standard". The Persians also minted posthumous Croeseid half-staters, with a weight of 5.35 g, which would become the weight standard for the later Sigloi, introduced at the end of the 6th century BC. Soon after 546, Cyrus also had full control of Asia Minor , including other regions such Lycia , Caria or Ionia , following

3720-656: A which was easily understandable to the Hellenized people in the Western areas of the Achaemenid Empire, who minted the Achaemenid coinage and to whom this coinage was mainly destined as a currency. Other depictions of the king as an archer (for example shooting from his charriot) are also known from Sumerian art , so this representation would also have been natural to subjects in the Achaemenid realm as well. The "archer" type of Type II, less hieratic and rigid than

3875-407: Is " Croesus and Fate ", a short story by Leo Tolstoy that is a retelling of the account of Croesus as told by Herodotus and Plutarch. Crœsus, King of Lydia , is a tragedy in five parts by Alfred Bate Richards , first published in 1845. To be " riche comme Crésus " is a popular French saying to describe the wealthiest of the wealthy, and gave its name to a TF1 game show Crésus , where the king

4030-554: Is currently not much held. The Lydians first attacked the Achaemenid Empire's city of Pteria in Cappadocia . The king of Lydia Croesus besieged and captured the city enslaving its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the Persians invited the citizens of Ionia who were part of the Lydian kingdom to revolt against their ruler. The offer was rebuffed, and thus Cyrus levied an army and marched against the Lydians, increasing his numbers while passing through nations in his way. The Battle of Pteria

4185-489: Is no direct evidence to support this assumption. After taking Babylon, Cyrus the Great proclaimed himself "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad , king of the four corners of the world" in the famous Cyrus Cylinder , an inscription on a cylinder that was deposited in the foundations of the Esagila temple dedicated to the chief Babylonian god, Marduk. The text of the cylinder denounces Nabonidus as impious and portrays

4340-754: Is reimagined as a CGI skeleton, who has returned from the dead to give some of his money away to lucky contestants. On The Simpsons , the wealthy Montgomery Burns lives at the corner of Croesus and Mammon Streets. In The Sopranos season 4 episode 6, Ralph Cifaretto tells Artie Bucco “With what you take out of that bar, you must be sitting on money like King Croesus.” In Squidbillies season 6 episode 8, Dan Halen remarks that he paid Early Cuyler, who he said "left with cash in hand, rich as Croesus". In Ghosts (2019 TV series) season 1 episode 5, Julian Fawcett (played by Simon Farnaby ) compares Barclays Beg-Chetwynde (played by Geoffrey McGivern ) to Croesus, "Oh I remember this berk... rich as Croesus, loves

4495-483: The Apadana hoard discovered under the palace's foundation stones, whereas the hoard contained several gold Croeseids of the light type from Sardis (probably minted under the rule of Darius I) and several imported Archaic Greek silver staters. The coinage of the Achaemenid Empire started to move away from simply copying Lydian coinage, to introducing changes with the reign of Darius I (ruled 522-486 BC). Under Darius I,

4650-521: The Apadana hoard , under the Apadana foundation stones of the Apadana Palace in Persepolis (dated to between 519 and 510 BC), whereas there were gold Croeseids of the light type and Greek silver staters. But by around 500 BC, a clay tablet, issued in year 22 of the reign of Darius I (circa 500 BC), contained the impression on clay of two Type II Sigloi ("King shooting arrow"), showing that

4805-553: The Eastern and Western worlds , Cyrus is also recognized for his achievements in human rights, politics, and military strategy. The Achaemenid Empire's prestige in the ancient world would eventually extend as far west as Athens, where upper-class Greeks adopted aspects of the culture of the ruling Persian class as their own. As the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus played a crucial role in defining

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4960-563: The Greek Κροισος Kroisos , which was thought to be the ancient Hellenic adaptation of the reconstructed Lydian name 𐤨𐤭𐤬𐤥𐤦𐤮𐤠𐤮 Krowisas . Krowisas was also analyzed as a compound term consisting of the proper name 𐤨𐤠𐤭𐤬𐤮 Karoś , of a glide 𐤥 ( -w- ) and of the Lydian term 𐤦𐤮𐤠𐤮 iśaś , perhaps meaning "master, lord, noble". According to J. M. Kearns, Croesus's real personal name would have been Karoś , while Krowisas would have been

5115-520: The Greeks , he was known as Cyrus the Elder ( Κῦρος ὁ Πρεσβύτερος Kŷros ho Presbýteros ). Cyrus was particularly renowned among contemporary scholars because of his habitual policy of respecting peoples' customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. He was influential in developing the system of a central administration at Pasargadae to govern the Achaemenid Empire's satraps , which worked for

5270-631: The Massagetae , a nomadic Eastern Iranian tribal confederation , along the Syr ;Darya in December 530 BC. However, Xenophon of Athens claimed that Cyrus did not die fighting and had instead returned to the city of Pasargadae , which served as the Achaemenid ceremonial capital. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses II , whose campaigns into North Africa led to the conquests of Egypt , Nubia , and Cyrenaica during his short rule. To

5425-613: The Midas myth because Lydian precious metals came from the river Pactolus , in which King Midas supposedly washed away his ability to turn all he touched into gold. In reality, Alyattes' tax revenues may have been the real 'Midas touch' financing his and Croesus' conquests. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as "rich as Croesus" or "richer than Croesus" are used to indicate great wealth to this day. The earliest known such usage in English

5580-555: The Persian daric . These late croesid coins bearing "bull and lion" images used under Cyrus differed from previous Mermnad croesids in that they were lighter and their weight was closer to those of the early golden darics and silver sigloi. According to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (c. 410–490s AD), who wrote a monumental History of Armenia , the Armenian king Artaxias I accomplished many military deeds, which include

5735-751: The Persian language and especially in Iran , Cyrus' name is spelled as کوروش ( Kūroš , [kuːˈɾoʃ] ). In the Bible , he is referred to in the Hebrew language as Koresh ( כורש ‎ ). Some pieces of evidence suggest that Cyrus is Kay Khosrow , a legendary Persian king of the Kayanian dynasty and a character in Shahnameh , a Persian epic . Some scholars, however, believe that neither Cyrus nor Cambyses were Iranian names , proposing that Cyrus

5890-500: The Scythians in their dress and mode of living; they fought on horseback and on foot. In order to acquire her realm, Cyrus first sent an offer of marriage to their ruler, the empress Tomyris , a proposal she rejected. He then commenced his attempt to take Massagetae territory by force (c. 529 BC), beginning by building bridges and towered war boats along his side of the river Oxus , or Amu Darya , which separated them. Sending him

6045-538: The "western designs" of the facing bull heads, a stag, or Persian column capitals on the obverse, and incuse punch on the reverse. According to numismatist Joe Cribb , these finds suggest that the idea of coinage and the use of punch-marked techniques was introduced to India from the Achaemenid Empire during the 4th century BC. More Achaemenid coins were also found in Pushkalavati and in Bhir Mound . During

6200-664: The 4th century, following the weakening of central Achaemenid power, and the development of coinage technologies, Siglos production receded and numerous satrapal issues of a very high quality started to appear in Western Asia under the Achaemenid Empire. These issues combined Achaemenid as well as Greek characteristics. Throughout, coin circulation was characterized by a mix of coins from the Achaemenid and Greek realms. Various Achaemenid satraps also issued imitations of Athenian tetradrachms, such as Sabakes in Egypt . Although many of

6355-814: The Achaemenids did not develop their own mints in Iran. At the same time, the circulation of the Daric was mainly confined to the Western part of the Achaemenid Empire. The minting of coins in Iran would only start later from circa 330 BC under Alexander the Great and the Seleucid Empire . It seems that all the minting activity for the Darics and the Sigloi for the whole Empire was essentially centralized in one mint, or possibly two mints, at Sardis in Lydia . Sardis remained

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6510-598: The Achaemenids had developed their own currency, they still accepted local monetary production including civic issues, throughout the land under their control, in particular in Western Asia . According to numismatist Martin Price , there is no doubt that the Darics and Sigloi of Types I and II were minted at Sardis and immediately followed the production of the Croeseids , since they adopted similar weights and were of

6665-515: The Babylonian armies, and detained Nabonidus. Herodotus explains that to accomplish this feat, the Persians, using a basin dug earlier by the Babylonian queen Nitokris to protect Babylon against Median attacks, diverted the Euphrates river into a canal so that the water level dropped "to the height of the middle of a man's thigh", which allowed the invading forces to march directly through

6820-473: The Empire, but soon died after only seven years of rule. He was succeeded either by Cyrus's other son Bardiya or an impostor posing as Bardiya, who became the sole ruler of Persia for seven months, until he was killed by Darius the Great . The translated ancient Roman and Greek accounts give a vivid description of the tomb both geometrically and aesthetically; the tomb's geometric shape has changed little over

6975-718: The Graeco-Roman historians' traditional account of the Halys River as having been set as the border between the Lydian and the Median kingdom, which appears to have been a retroactive narrative construction based on symbolic role assigned by Greeks to the Halys as the separation between Lower Asia and Upper Asia as well as on the Halys being a later provincial border within the Achaemenid Empire . The eastern border of

7130-607: The Great , was the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire . Hailing from Persis , he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East , expanding vastly and eventually conquering most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create what would soon become the largest polity in human history at

7285-435: The Great ordered Aristobulus to improve the tomb's condition and restore its interior. Despite his admiration for Cyrus the Great, and his attempts at renovation of his tomb, Alexander had, six years previously (330 BC), sacked Persepolis , the opulent city that Cyrus may have chosen the site for, and either ordered its burning as an act of pro-Greek propaganda or set it on fire during drunken revels. The edifice has survived

7440-561: The Great spared Croesus's life and kept him as an advisor, but this account conflicts with some translations of the contemporary Nabonidus Chronicle which interpret that the king of Lydia was slain. Before returning to the capital, Commagene was incorporated into Persia in 546 BC. Later, a Lydian named Pactyas was entrusted by Cyrus the Great to send Croesus's treasury to Persia. However, soon after Cyrus's departure, Pactyas hired mercenaries and caused an uprising in Sardis, revolting against

7595-588: The Great throughout antiquity are reflected in the way he is remembered today. His own nation, the Iranians, have regarded him as "The Father", the very title that had been used during the time of Cyrus himself, by the many nations that he conquered, as according to Xenophon : And those who were subject to him, he treated with esteem and regard, as if they were his own children, while his subjects themselves respected Cyrus as their "Father" ... What other man but 'Cyrus', after having overturned an empire, ever died with

7750-659: The Great's dominions composed the largest empire the world had ever seen to that point. At the end of Cyrus's rule, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from Asia Minor in the west to the Indus River in the east. The details of Cyrus's death vary by account. Ctesias , in his Persica , has the longest account, which says Cyrus met his death while putting down resistance from the Derbices infantry, aided by other Scythian archers and cavalry, plus Indians and their war-elephants. According to him, this event took place northeast of

7905-520: The Greek city-states on the islands and he instead concluded treaties of friendship with them, which might have helped him participate in the lucrative trade the Aegean Greeks carried out with Egypt at Naucratis . The Lydians had already conquered Phrygia under the rule of Alyattes, who took advantage of the weakening of the various polities all across Anatolia by the Cimmerian raids and used

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8060-466: The Greek world, and at the same time wield the dynastic power of an Achaemenid dynast who could issue his own coins and illustrate them as he wished. From the time of Alexander the Great , portraiture of the issuing ruler would then become a standard, generalized, feature of coinage. After his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire , Alexander the Great established his own satraps in the conquered territories, some of them Achaemenids who had been favorable to

8215-661: The Greeks, including with the Milesians who were under Lydian authority. These trade relations also functioned as an access point for Greek mercenaries serving the Saite pharaohs. Croesus also established trade and diplomatic relations with the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nabonidus , which ensured the transition of Lydian products towards Babylonian markets. Croesus also continued the good relations between Lydia and

8370-473: The Greeks. Daric coins have been found in Asia Minor , Greece , Macedonia and Italy . The Siglos denomination have been found in hoards only in Asia Minor, and single coins with other Greek coinage from Ancient Egypt to Afghanistan ( Kabul hoard ) and Pakistan ( Shaikhan Dehri hoard ). In all the known hoards of the Achaemenid period, royal Achaemenid coinage, such as the sigloi, form actually

8525-488: The Iranian plateau started as an extension of the Achaemenid dynasty, who expanded their earlier dominion possibly from the 9th century BC onward. The eponymous founder of the dynasty was Achaemenes (from Old Persian Haxāmaniš ). Achaemenids are "descendants of Achaemenes", as Darius the Great , the ninth king of the dynasty, traced his ancestry to him, declaring "for this reason, we are called Achaemenids". Achaemenes built

8680-619: The Lycian coins with dynastic portraits, a slightly earlier candidate for the first portrait is Themistocles , the Athenian general who became a Governor of Magnesia on the Meander for the Achaemenid Empire circa 465-459 BC, although there is some doubt that his coins may have represented Zeus rather than himself. Themistocles may have been in a unique position in which he could transfer the notion of individual portraiture , already current in

8835-574: The Lydian armies, and the Cilicians , who had already been conquered by Neo-Babylonian Empire . Modern estimates nevertheless suggest that it is not impossible that the Lydians might have subjected Lycia, given that the Lycian coast would have been important for the Lydians because it was close to a trade route connecting the Aegean region, the Levant , and Cyprus . Modern studies also consider doubtful

8990-511: The Lydian army again at Thymbra before besieging and capturing the Lydian capital of Sardis , thus bringing an end to the rule of the Mermnad dynasty and to the Lydian Empire. Lydia would never regain its independence and would remain a part of various successive empires. Although the dates for the battles of Pteria and Thymbra and of end of the Lydian empire have been traditionally fixed to 547 BC, more recent estimates suggest that Herodotus's account being unreliable chronologically concerning

9145-517: The Lydian king started to pressure the city and demanded that Pindar leave it and go into exile. After Pindar accepted these terms, Croesus annexed Ephesus into the Lydian Empire. Once Ephesus was under Lydian rule, Croesus provided patronage for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis , to which he offered a large number of marble columns as dedication to the goddess. Meanwhile the Ionian city of Miletus had been willingly sending tribute to Mena in exchange for being spared from Lydian attacks because

9300-432: The Magi and put them to court. On some accounts, Alexander's decision to put the Magi on trial was more about his attempt to undermine their influence and his show of power in his newly conquered empire, than a concern for Cyrus's tomb. However, Alexander admired Cyrus, from an early age reading Xenophon's Cyropaedia , which described Cyrus's heroism in battle and governance as a king and legislator. Regardless, Alexander

9455-399: The Persian satrap of Lydia, Tabalus. Cyrus sent Mazares , one of his commanders, to subdue the insurrection but demanded that Pactyas be returned alive. Upon Mazares's arrival, Pactyas fled to Ionia , where he had hired more mercenaries. Mazares marched his troops into the Greek country and subdued the cities of Magnesia and Priene . The fate of Pactyas is unknown, but after capture, he

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9610-455: The Phrygian vassals had the duty to provide military support and sometimes offer rich tribute to the Lydian kingdom. This situation continued under the rule of Croesus, with one inscription attesting of the presence of Croesus's son Atys at the court of one local ruler of Midas City himself named Midas. At Midas City, Atys held the position of priest of the sacred fire of the mother goddess Aryastin, and through him Croesus provided patronage to

9765-451: The Seven Sages , in the Suda (entry "Μᾶλλον ὁ Φρύξ," which adds Aesop and the Seven Sages of Greece ), and by Tolstoy in his short story " Croesus and Fate ". In 550 BC, Croesus's brother-in-law, the Median king Astyages, was overthrown by his own grandson, the Persian king Cyrus the Great . In a likely legendary event recounted by Herodotus, Croesus responded by consulting the oracle of Delphi, who told him that he would "destroy

9920-403: The Spartan king, said upon leaving Asia "I have been driven out by 10,000 Persian archers", a reference to "Archers" ( Toxotai ) the Greek nickname for the Darics from their obverse design, because that much money had been paid to politicians in Athens and Thebes in order to start a war against Sparta. The Siglos was 5.40-5.60 grams each, based on the 0.5 Lydian Siglos of 10.73-10.92 grams for

10075-415: The Syr Darya. Cyrus the Great's remains may have been interred in his capital city of Pasargadae , where today a limestone tomb (built around 540–530 BC ) still exists, which many believe to be his. Strabo and Arrian give nearly identical descriptions of the tomb, based on the eyewitness report of Aristobulus of Cassandreia , who at the request of Alexander the Great visited the tomb twice. Though

10230-433: The aforementioned locations as well as in Hacıtuğrul , Afyonkarahisar , and Konya , which would have provided to the Lydian kingdom access to the produce and roads of Phrygia. The presence of a Lydian ivory plaque at Kerkenes Daǧ suggests that Alyattes's control of Phrygia might have extended to the east of the Halys River to include the city of Pteria , with the possibility that he may have rebuilt this city and placed

10385-466: The area in 542 BC and returned to Persia. After the conquest of Lydia, Cyrus campaigned in the east between around 545 BC to 540 BC. Cyrus first tried to conquer Gedrosia , however he was decisively defeated and departed Gedrosia. Gedrosia was most likely conquered during the reign of Darius I. After the failed attempt to conquer Gedrosia, Cyrus attacked the regions of Bactria , Arachosia , Sogdia , Saka , Chorasmia , Margiana and other provinces in

10540-422: The armies), but were under the authority of the Lydian kings of Sardis and had a Lydian diplomatic presence at their court, following the framework of the traditional vassalage treaties used since the period of the Hittite and Assyrian empires, and according to which the Lydian king imposed on the vassal rulers a "treaty of vassalage" which allowed the local Phrygian rulers to remain in power, in exchange of which

10695-411: The basis of their weight. Greek coinage travelled throughout the Achaemenid Empire. For example, the Greek coins discovered in the Kabul hoard include the following types: The Achaemenid Empire already reached the doors of India during the original expansion of Cyrus the Great , and the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley is dated to circa 515 BC under Darius I . An Achaemenid administration

10850-432: The battle(s), the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Nabonidus , had ordered cult statues from outlying Babylonian cities to be brought into the capital, suggesting that the conflict had begun possibly in the winter of 540 BC. Just before October 539 BC, Cyrus fought the Battle of Opis in or near the strategic riverside city of Opis on the Tigris, north of Babylon. The Babylonian army was routed, and on 10 October, Sippar

11005-404: The building of the religious monument in the city now known as the Midas Monument. The presence of Atys at the court of this Midas might have inspired the legend recounted by Herodotus, according to which Croesus had a dream in which Atys was killed by an iron spear, after which he prevented his son from leading military activities, but Atys nevertheless found death while hunting a wild boar which

11160-436: The capture of Croesus and the conquest of the Lydian kingdom (2.12–13). References to Croesus' legendary power and wealth, often as a symbol of human vanity, are numerous in literature. The following, by Isaac Watts , is from the poem "False Greatness": Thus mingled still with wealth and state, Croesus himself can never know; His true dimensions and his weight Are far inferior to their show. Another literary example

11315-472: The central mint for the Persian Darics and Sigloi of Achaemenid coinage, and there is no evidence of other mints for the new Achaemenid coins during the whole time of the Achaemenid Empire. According to hoard finds, Sardis was clearly the main mint, but there may also have been secondary mints in southwestern and northwestern Asia Minor as well. Overall, it seems that the minting of Darics and Sigloi

11470-472: The circulation of Greek coinage was central in the monetary system of the Empire. These coins were probably not legal tenders in the Achaemenid Empire, but were valued for their weight in silver, and thus used as bullion silver. Numerous finds of hacksilber hoards in the East also exist from the period, in which various silver objects, including coins, are cut into pieces, in order to facilitate their exchange on

11625-640: The city itself is now in ruins, the burial place of Cyrus the Great has remained largely intact, and the tomb has been partially restored to counter its natural deterioration over the centuries. According to Plutarch , his epitaph read: O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones. Cuneiform evidence from Babylon proves that Cyrus died around December 530 BC, and that his son Cambyses II had become king. Cambyses continued his father's policy of expansion, and captured Egypt for

11780-464: The city-state of Sparta , to whom he provided the gold they needed to gild a statue of the god Apollo after the oracle of Delphi told them they would obtain this gold from Croesus. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, the Croeseid (following on from his father Alyattes who invented minting with electrum coins). Indeed,

11935-566: The close connection between this type of winged figure and the image of Iranian majesty, which he associated with a dream prognosticating the king's death before his last, fatal campaign across the Oxus. Muhammad Dandamayev says that Persians may have taken Cyrus's body back from the Massagetae, unlike what Herodotus claimed. According to the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (AD 1166–1199) Cyrus

12090-460: The conquests of his general Harpagus . With the conquest of Lydia and the adoption of Lydian coinage, the nascent Achaemenid Empire thus obtained access to the most modern coinage of its time and the economic power that goes with it. The mint was located in Sardis , now capital of all the western satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire, and continued minted operation under Cyrus. This coinage would supply

12245-474: The dead infant Cyrus. Cyrus lived in secrecy, but when he reached the age of 10, during a childhood game, he had the son of a nobleman beaten when he refused to obey Cyrus' commands. As it was unheard of for the son of a shepherd to commit such an act, Astyages had the boy brought to his court, and interviewed him and his adoptive father. Upon the shepherd's confession, Astyages sent Cyrus back to Persia to live with his biological parents. However, Astyages summoned

12400-731: The death of Alexander, Achaemenid gold darics continued to be minted in Babylon , at the same time as Alexandrine imperial issues were minted. Some of these issues are dated to circa 315-300/298 BC. These darics continued to use the Achaemenid type, but the reverse was slightly modified to include wavy patterns. Cyrus the Great Persian Revolt Invasion of Anatolia Invasion of Babylonia Cyrus II of Persia ( Old Persian : 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 , romanized:  𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 Kūruš ; c.  600  – 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus

12555-430: The deaths of both of Cyrus's sons. Cyrus's conquest of Media was merely the start of his wars. The exact dates of the Lydian conquest are unknown, but it must have taken place between Cyrus's overthrow of the Median kingdom (550 BC) and his conquest of Babylon (539 BC). It was common in the past to give 547 BC as the year of the conquest due to some interpretations of the Nabonidus Chronicle , but this position

12710-450: The earliest Lycian coins under the Achaemenids also used an animal design on the obverse and incuse punches on the reverse, which developed into geometrical forms, such as two diagonals between projecting rectangular lugs. As late as the time of the foundation of the Apadana Palace in Persepolis (dated to between 519 and 510 BC), it seems that the Achaemenids had not yet designed the Sigloi and Darics: no coins of these types were found in

12865-511: The east. In 533 BC, Cyrus the Great crossed the Hindu Kush mountains and collected tribute from the Indus cities. Thus, Cyrus probably had established vassal states in western India. Cyrus then returned with his army to Babylon due to the unrest taking place in and around Babylon. By the year 540 BC, Cyrus captured Elam and its capital, Susa . The Nabonidus Chronicle records that, prior to

13020-467: The empire during his military campaigns of 546–539 BC. With Astyages out of power, all of his vassals (including many of Cyrus's relatives) were now under his command. His uncle Arsames , who had been the king of the city-state of Parsa under the Medes , therefore would have had to give up his throne. However, this transfer of power within the family seems to have been smooth, and it is likely that Arsames

13175-405: The entire kingdom. These were interpreted by his advisers as a foretelling that his grandson would one day rebel and supplant him as king. Astyages summoned Mandane, at the time pregnant with Cyrus, back to Ecbatana to have the child killed. His general Harpagus delegated the task to Mithradates, one of the shepherds of Astyages, who raised the child and passed off his stillborn son to Harpagus as

13330-468: The fall of Lydia means that there are currently no ways of dating the fall of Sardis ; theoretically, it may even have taken place after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Croesus's fate after the Persian conquest of Lydia is uncertain: Herodotus , the poet Bacchylides and Nicolaus of Damascus claimed that Croesus either tried to commit suicide on a pyre or was condemned by the Persians to be burnt at

13485-415: The final Battle of Thymbra between the two rulers, Harpagus advised Cyrus the Great to place his dromedaries in front of his warriors; the Lydian horses, not used to the dromedaries' smell, would be very afraid. The strategy worked; the Lydian cavalry was routed. Cyrus defeated and captured Croesus. Cyrus occupied the capital at Sardis, conquering the Lydian kingdom in 546 BC. According to Herodotus, Cyrus

13640-544: The final battle resulted in the capture of Ecbatana. This was described in the paragraph that preceded the entry for Nabonidus's year 7, which detailed Cyrus's victory and the capture of his grandfather. According to the historians Herodotus and Ctesias, Cyrus spared the life of Astyages and married his daughter, Amytis. This marriage pacified several vassals, including the Bactrians , Parthians , and Saka . Herodotus notes that Cyrus also subdued and incorporated Sogdia into

13795-499: The first coinage in history. With his conquest of Lydia, Cyrus acquired a region in which coinage was invented, developed through advanced metallurgy, and had already been in circulation for about 50 years, making the Lydian Kingdom one of the leading trade powers of the time. It seems that Cyrus initially adopted the Lydian coinage as such, and continued to strike Lydia's lion-and-bull Croeseid coinage. The stater coins had

13950-485: The first coins of Antiquity were illustrated with the images of various gods or symbols, the first ever portraiture of actual rulers appears with these Achaemenid satrapal issues in the 5th century BC, in particular with the coinage of Lycia . The Achaemenids had been the first to illustrate the person of their king or a hero in a stereotypical manner, showing a bust or the full body, but never an actual portrait, on their Sigloi and Daric coinage from circa 500 BC. Before

14105-538: The first rank, and were granted the permission to become Delphian priests. These exchanges of gifts for privileges in turn meant that strong relations of hospitality existed between Lydia and Delphi due to which the Delphians had the duty to welcome, protect, and ensure the well-being of Lydian ambassadors. Croesus further increased his contacts with the Greeks on the European continent by establishing relations with

14260-563: The full unit. Purity was at first issue 97-98% but by the middle 4th century was 94-95%. 1 Siglos = 7.5 Attic Obols . Although the area of Babylon had never minted Darics or Sigloi, after the capture of Babylon by Alexander , the Satrap Mazaeus , reconfirmed by Alexander in his position for having opened the doors of Babylon to his armies after the Battle of Gaugamela , issued the double Daric of 16.65 grams in weight whose image

14415-472: The genealogy given in the Behistun Inscription and by Herodotus holds that Cyrus the Great was an Achaemenid. However, M. Waters has suggested that Cyrus is unrelated to the Achaemenids or Darius the Great, and that his family was of Teispid and Anshanite origin instead of Achaemenid. Cyrus was born to Cambyses I , King of Anshan, and Mandane, daughter of Astyages , King of Media, during

14570-546: The governor of the city of Barene in Media. A passage from the Nabonidus Chronicle was long held to have referred to a military campaign of Cyrus against a country whose name has been largely erased except for the first cuneiform character which had been interpreted as Lu , extrapolated to be the first syllable of an Akkadian name for Lydia. This passage in the Nabonidus Chronicle would thus have referred to

14725-486: The hands of the Persians. The interview is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject "Which man is happy?" It is legendary rather than historical. Thus, the "happiness" of Croesus is presented as a moralistic exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche , a theme that gathered strength from the fourth century, revealing its late date. The story was later retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of

14880-605: The headwaters of the Syr Darya. The account of Herodotus from his Histories provides the second-longest detail, in which Cyrus met his fate in a fierce battle with the Massagetae, a Scythian tribal confederation from the southern deserts of Khwarezm and Kyzyl Kum in the southernmost portion of the Eurasian Steppe regions of modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan , following the advice of Croesus to attack them in their own territory. The Massagetae were related to

15035-428: The historian Herodotus, it is known that Astyages placed Harpagus in command of the Median army to conquer Cyrus. However, Harpagus contacted Cyrus and encouraged his revolt against Media, before eventually defecting along with several of the nobility and a portion of the army. This mutiny is confirmed by the Nabonidus Chronicle. The Chronicle suggests that the hostilities lasted for at least three years (553–550 BC), and

15190-515: The historical Croesus did in fact die on the pyre, and that the stories of him as a wise advisor to the courts of Cyrus and Cambyses are purely legendary, showing similarities to the sayings of Ahiqar . A similar conclusion is drawn in a recent article that makes a case for the proposal that the Lydian word Qλdãnś, both meaning 'king' and the name of a god, and pronounced /kʷɾʲ'ðãns/ with four consecutive Lydian sounds unfamiliar to ancient Greeks, could correspond to Greek Κροισος , or Croesus . If

15345-464: The identification is correct it might have the interesting historical consequence that king Croesus chose suicide at the stake and was subsequently deified. After defeating Croesus, Cyrus adopted the use of gold coinage as the main currency of his kingdom. The use of croesid coins under the Persian Empire would continue under Cyrus, and would end only after Darius the Great replaced them by

15500-425: The invader, such as Mazaios , others some of Alexander's closest supports, such as Balacrus . Several satraps continued to use an Achaemenid type for their coinage, such as Balacrus when he became Hellenistic satrap of Cilicia , complete with the local deity of Tarsus, Baal . This coinage is said to have later influenced Alexander's imperial coinage, which was often minted in the same mints. Even many years after

15655-467: The invention of coinage had passed into Greek society through Hermodike II . Hermodike II, the daughter of an Agamemnon of Cyme , claimed descent from the original Agamemnon who conquered Troy . She was likely one of Alyettes’ wives, so may have been Croesus’ mother, because the bull imagery on the croeseid symbolises the Hellenic Zeus —see Europa (consort of Zeus) . Zeus, through Hercules,

15810-551: The kingdom of Croesus would thus have instead been further to the east of the Halys, at an undetermined point in eastern Anatolia. Croesus continued the friendly relations with the Medes concluded by his father Alyattes and the Median king Cyaxares after five years of war in 585 BC, shortly before both their respective deaths that same year. As part of the peace treaty ending the war between Media and Lydia, Croesus's sister Aryenis had married Cyaxares's son and successor Astyages , who thus became Croesus's brother-in-law, while

15965-414: The kingdom. The Nabonidus Chronicle states that Babylonia mourned Cassandane for six days (identified as 21–26 March 538 BC). After his father's death, Cyrus inherited the Persian throne at Pasargadae , which was a vassal of Astyages. The Greek historian Strabo has said that Cyrus was originally named Agradates by his step-parents. It is possible that, when reuniting with his original family, following

16120-707: The lack of a centralised Phrygian state and the traditionally friendly relations between the Lydian and Phrygian elites to extend Lydian rule eastwards to Phrygia. Lydian presence in Phrygia is archaeologically attested by the existence of a Lydian citadel in the Phrygian capital of Gordion , as well as Lydian architectural remains in northwest Phrygia, such as in Dascylium , and in the Phrygian Highlands at Midas City . Lydian troops might have been stationed in

16275-489: The least capable ones. The general of Tomyris's army, Spargapises , who was also her son, and a third of the Massagetian troops, killed the group Cyrus had left there and, finding the camp well stocked with food and the wine, unwittingly drank themselves into inebriation, diminishing their capability to defend themselves when they were then overtaken by a surprise attack. They were successfully defeated, and, although he

16430-418: The minting of Croeseids in Sardis was progressively replaced by the minting of Darics and Sigloi. From around 510-500 BC, Darius then simplified the coining procedure by replacing the double reverse punch of Lydian coins, by a single, oblong reverse punch, and he introduced the image of the Persian king in place of the lion and bull design. This is deduced from the fact that no Darics or Sigloi were found in

16585-520: The naming customs, Cyrus's father, Cambyses I , named him Cyrus after his grandfather, who was Cyrus I . There is also an account by Strabo that claimed Agradates adopted the name Cyrus after the Cyrus river near Pasargadae . Herodotus gave a mythological account of Cyrus's early life. In this account, Astyages had two prophetic dreams in which a flood, and then a series of fruit-bearing vines, emerged from his daughter Mandane's pelvis, and covered

16740-524: The national identity of the Iranian nation; the Achaemenid Empire was instrumental in spreading the ideals of Zoroastrianism as far east as China. He remains a cult figure in Iran , with the Tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae serving as a spot of reverence for millions of the country's citizens. The name Cyrus is a Latinized form derived from the Greek-language name Κῦρος ( Kỹros ), which itself

16895-547: The new Sigloi had already been issued by that date. Because of these and other discoveries, the creation of the Darics and Sigloi is dated to the last decade of the 6th century BC, during the reign of Darius I . The new Achaemenid coins were initially only made in silver, while the Lydian gold design of the Croesus was maintained. Then Darius introduced his new design for gold coins as well, which came to be known as Darics, from Old Persian Daruiyaka , meaning "Golden". Although

17050-571: The non-erased cuneiform sign was not Lu , but rather Ú , making untenable the interpretation of the text as talking of a campaign against Lydia, and instead suggesting that the campaign was against Urartu . The scholar Max Mallowan argued that there is no evidence that Cyrus the Great killed Croesus, in particular rejected the account of burning on a pyre, and interpreted Bacchylides' narration as Croesus attempting suicide and then being saved by Cyrus. The historian Kevin Leloux instead maintained

17205-575: The other hand, would not have had a reason to change an original Kuraš into Kuruš , since both forms were acceptable. Therefore, Kuraš probably represents the original form. Another scholarly opinion is that Kuruš was a name of Indo-Aryan origin, in honour of the Indo-Aryan Kuru and Kamboja mercenaries from eastern Afghanistan and Northwest India that helped in the conquest of the Middle East. The Persian domination and kingdom in

17360-460: The other mentioned peoples and the Lydian kings; moreover, given this was the situation detailed by Herodotus under the reign of Croesus, it is very likely that a number of these populations had already been conquered under Alyattes. The only populations Herodotus claimed were independent of the Lydian Empire were the Lycians , who lived in a mountainous country which would not have been accessible to

17515-444: The overthrow of the city's last tyrants, Thoas and Damasenor, and the replacement of the tyranny by a system of magistrates had annulated the relations of friendship initiated by Alyattes and the former Milesian tyrant Thrasybulus . Croesus continued his attacks against the other Greek cities of the western coast of Asia Minor until he had subjugated all of mainland Ionia , Aeolis , and Doris , but he abandoned his plans of annexing

17670-596: The peoples to the west of the Halys River - the Lydians , Phrygians , Mysians , Mariandyni , Chalybes , Paphlagonians , Thyni and Bithyni Thracians , Carians , Ionians , Dorians , Aeolians , and Pamphylians . However information only about the relations between the Lydians and the Phrygians is attested in both literary and archaeological sources, and there is no available data concerning relations between

17825-601: The period of 600–599 BC. By his own account, generally believed now to be accurate, Cyrus was preceded as king by his father Cambyses I, grandfather Cyrus I, and great-grandfather Teispes. Cyrus married Cassandane who was an Achaemenian and the daughter of Pharnaspes who bore him two sons, Cambyses II and Bardiya along with three daughters, Atossa , Artystone , and Roxane. Cyrus and Cassandane were known to love each other very much – Cassandane said that she found it more bitter to leave Cyrus than to depart her life. After her death, Cyrus insisted on public mourning throughout

17980-613: The person of their king on coinage. In effect, the gold Daric became a currency desired in all the ancient world, since it was the most convenient format to exchange and accumulate wealth. The Greeks never minted much gold, but their silver Athenian tetradrachms also became a sort of world currency from the 5th century BC. The first important competition against the prestigious Daric, as a means of storing wealth and making large payments on an international scale, came later from Philip II of Macedon (ruled 359–336 BC), when he issued his own gold coinage, pointedly called Dareikos Philippeios by

18135-637: The profit of both rulers and subjects. Following the Persian conquest of Babylon , Cyrus issued the Edict of Restoration , in which he authorized and encouraged the return of the Jewish people to what had been the Kingdom of Judah , officially ending the Babylonian captivity . He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and left a lasting legacy on Judaism due to his role in facilitating the return to Zion ,

18290-408: The reading of the Nabonidus Chronicle as referring to a campaign of Cyrus against Lydia to argue that Croesus was indeed executed by Cyrus. According to him, the story of Croesus and the pyre would have been imagined by the Greeks based on the fires started during the Persian capture of Sardis throughout the lower city, where the buildings were made largely of wood. In 2003, Stephanie West argued that

18445-476: The reformed currency system from about 510-500 BC, consisting of gold Darics and silver Sigloi. The rate of exchange was 1 Daric = 20 Siglos. A Daric was between 8.10 and 8.50 grams in weight, based on the Babylonian shekel of 8.33 grams, slightly heavier than the Croesus standard of 8.06 grams. The purity of gold was between 98 and 99%. 1 Daric = 25 Attic Drachmae . It represented initially about 1 month of

18600-423: The river bed to enter at night. Shortly thereafter, Nabonidus returned from Borsippa and surrendered to Cyrus. On 29 October, Cyrus entered the city of Babylon. Prior to Cyrus's invasion of Babylon, the Neo-Babylonian Empire had conquered many kingdoms. In addition to Babylonia, Cyrus probably incorporated its sub-national entities into his Empire, including Syria , Judea , and Arabia Petraea , although there

18755-519: The same fabric. He insists that the finds of the Croeseids and the "Archer" types of Darics and Sigloi indicate that they were not an Imperial coinage, but rather the coinage of the Satrapy of Lydia. Although the Achaemenids fully exploited and developed coinage production in Western Asia, it seems barter economy remained quite important in the Iranian heartland throughout the Achaemenid period, and

18910-425: The same land. These also agree with other non-Iranian accounts, except on one point from Herodotus which states that Cambyses was not a king but a "Persian of good family". However, in some other passages, Herodotus' account is wrong also on the name of the son of Chishpish , which he mentions as Cambyses but according to modern scholars, should be Cyrus I . The traditional view based on archaeological research and

19065-530: The sanctuary of the god Apollo in Delphi on continental Greece first established by his great-great-grandfather Gyges and maintained by his father Alyattes, and just like his ancestors, Croesus offered the sanctuary rich presents in dedication, including a lion made of gold and weighing ten talents. In exchange for the offerings of Croesus to the sanctuary of Apollo, the Lydians obtained precedence in consulting its oracle, were exempt from taxes, were allowed to sit at

19220-488: The shape of bent bars. Some Achaemenid satraps are also known to have minted coins in imitation of Athenian coinage, such as the satrap of Egypt Sabakes (ruled circa 340-333 BCE). An Achaemenid copy of an Athenian coin, this time found in the Kabul hoard , was minted in the vicinity of Babylon circa 380 BC. The fact that Greek coins (both Archaic and early Classical) are comparatively numerous in Achaemenid period coin hoards, much more numerous than sigloi, suggests that

19375-430: The son of Harpagus, and in retribution, chopped him to pieces, roasted some portions while boiling others, and tricked his adviser into eating his child during a large banquet. Following the meal, Astyages's servants brought Harpagus the head, hands and feet of his son on platters, so he could realize his inadvertent cannibalism. Cyrus the Great succeeded to the throne in 559 BC following his father's death; however, Cyrus

19530-455: The stake until a thunderstorm's rain water extinguished the fire after either his or his son's prayers to the god Apollo (or after Cyrus heard Croesus calling the name of Solon). In most versions of the story, Cyrus kept Croesus as his advisor, although Bacchylides claimed that the god Zeus carried Croesus away to Hyperborea . Xenophon similarly claimed that Cyrus kept Croesus as his advisor, while Ctesias claimed that Cyrus appointed Croesus as

19685-420: The state of Parsumash in the southwest of Iran and was succeeded by Teispes , who took the title "King of Anshan " after seizing the city Anshan and enlarging his kingdom further to include Pars proper. Ancient documents mention that Teispes had a son called Cyrus I , who also succeeded his father as "king of Anshan". Cyrus I had a full brother whose name is recorded as Ariaramnes . In 600 BC, Cyrus I

19840-523: The test of time, through invasions, internal divisions, successive empires, regime changes, and revolutions. The last prominent Persian figure to bring attention to the tomb was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah of Iran) the last official monarch of Persia, during his celebrations of 2,500 years of monarchy. Just as Alexander the Great before him, the Shah of Iran wanted to appeal to Cyrus's legacy to legitimize his own rule by extension. The United Nations recognizes

19995-601: The time. The Achaemenid Empire's largest territorial extent was achieved under Darius the Great , whose rule stretched from Southeast Europe in the west to the Indus River valley in the east. After conquering the Median Empire, Cyrus led the Achaemenids to conquer Lydia and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire . He also led an expedition into Central Asia, which resulted in major military campaigns that were described as having brought "into subjection every nation without exception"; Cyrus allegedly died in battle with

20150-687: The title of "The Father" from the people whom he had brought under his power? For it is plain fact that this is a name for one that bestows, rather than for one that takes away! The historian Plutarch ( c.  46  – c.  119 AD ) tells that "the Persians, because Cyrus was hook-nosed, even to this day love hook-nosed men and consider them the most handsome". Croesus Croesus ( / ˈ k r iː s ə s / KREE -səs ; Lydian : 𐤨𐤭𐤬𐤥𐤦𐤮𐤠𐤮 Krowisas ; Phrygian : Akriaewais ; Ancient Greek : Κροῖσος , romanized :  Kroisos ; Latin : Croesus ; reigned: c.  585  – c.  546 BC )

20305-549: The tomb of Cyrus the Great and Pasargadae as a UNESCO World Heritage site. British historian Charles Freeman suggests that "In scope and extent his achievements [Cyrus] ranked far above that of the Macedonian king, Alexander, who was to demolish the [Achaemenid] empire in the 320s but fail to provide any stable alternative." Cyrus has been a personal hero to many people, including Thomas Jefferson , Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , and David Ben-Gurion . The achievements of Cyrus

20460-559: The traditional Achaemenid illustration of the bust of the king on Type I, may represent the fusion of the Eastern conception of the King as a royal hunter, and the Western conception of the King as a hero, and designed to represent the Achaemenid king as an Olympian contestant in a propaganda effort towards the West. These depictions also imply that the Achaemenids were the first ever to illustrate

20615-452: The victorious Cyrus as pleasing the god Marduk. It describes how Cyrus had improved the lives of the citizens of Babylonia, repatriated displaced peoples, and restored temples and cult sanctuaries. Although some have asserted that the cylinder represents a form of human rights charter, historians generally portray it in the context of a long-standing Mesopotamian tradition of new rulers beginning their reigns with declarations of reforms. Cyrus

20770-417: The western part of the Achaemenid Empire. Technically, these early coins used incuse punches on the reverse, while the obverse die would consist in some pictorial design ("die and punch" technique, rather than the later "two dies" technique). The Lydian coins used double punches on the reverse, a technique which would be simplified in the time of Darius by using a single reverse punch on some coinage. Some of

20925-422: The years, still maintaining a large stone of quadrangular form at the base, followed by a pyramidal succession of smaller rectangular stones, until after a few slabs, the structure is curtailed by an edifice, with an arched roof composed of a pyramidal shaped stone, and a small opening or window on the side, where the slenderest man could barely squeeze through. Within this edifice was a golden coffin , resting on

21080-427: Was Elamite in origin and that the name meant "he who bestows care" in the extinct Elamite language . One reason is that, while Elamite names may end in -uš , no Elamite texts spell the name this way — only Kuraš . Meanwhile, Old Persian did not allow names to end in -aš , so it would make sense for Persian speakers to change an original Kuraš into the more grammatically correct form Kuruš . Elamite scribes, on

21235-565: Was John Gower 's in Confessio amantis (1390): Original text: That if the tresor of Cresus And al the gold Octovien, Forth with the richesse Yndien Of Perles and of riche stones, Were al togedre myn at ones, I sette it at nomore acompte Than wolde a bare straw amonte. Modern spelling: That if the treasure of Croesus And all the gold Octavian, Forth with the riches Indian Of pearls and of rich stones, Were altogether mine at once, I set it at no more account Than would

21390-401: Was based on the Daric coin and bore his name until his death in 328 BC. The "archer" type used in Achaemenid coinage may have been derived from similar and contemporary images on Greek coinage, in particular those of Herakles shooting arrows. The adaptation of this design for the illustration of the Achaemenid king or hero on the obverse may have been meant as a way to glorify the king, in way

21545-571: Was derived from the Old Persian name Kūruš . The name and its meaning have been recorded within ancient inscriptions in different languages. The ancient Greek historians Ctesias and Plutarch stated that Cyrus was named from the Sun ( Kuros ), a concept which has been interpreted as meaning "like the Sun" ( Khurvash ) by noting its relation to the Persian noun for Sun, khor , while using -vash as

21700-402: Was effectively a stalemate, with both sides suffering heavy casualties by nightfall. Croesus retreated to Sardis the following morning. While in Sardis, Croesus sent out requests for his allies to send aid to Lydia. However, near the end of the winter, before the allies could unite, Cyrus the Great pushed the war into Lydian territory and besieged Croesus in his capital, Sardis. Shortly before

21855-551: Was established in the area. The Kabul hoard , also called the Chaman Hazouri hoard, is a coin hoard discovered in the vicinity of Kabul , Afghanistan , containing numerous Achaemenid coins as well as many Greek coins from the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The deposit of the hoard is dated to the Achaemenid period, in approximately 380 BC. The hoard also contained many locally produced silver coins, minted by local authorities under Achaemenid rule. Several of these issues follow

22010-462: Was killed by his wife Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae (Maksata), in the 60th year of Jewish captivity. An alternative account from Xenophon 's Cyropaedia contradicts the others, claiming that Cyrus died peacefully at his capital. The final version of Cyrus's death comes from Berossus , who only reports that Cyrus met his death while warring against the Dahae archers northwest of the headwaters of

22165-571: Was not yet an independent ruler. Like his predecessors, Cyrus had to recognize Median overlordship. Astyages , last king of the Median Empire and Cyrus's grandfather, may have ruled over the majority of the Ancient Near East , from the Lydian frontier in the west to the lands of the Parthians and Persians in the east. According to the Nabonidus Chronicle , Astyages launched an attack against Cyrus, "king of Ansan". According to

22320-404: Was over, Tomyris ordered the body of Cyrus brought to her, then decapitated him and dipped his head in a vessel of blood in a symbolic gesture of revenge for his bloodlust and the death of her son. However, some scholars question this version, mostly because even Herodotus admits this event was one of many versions of Cyrus's death that he heard from a supposedly reliable source who told him no one

22475-479: Was probably sent to Cyrus and put to death after being tortured. Mazares continued the conquest of Asia Minor but died of unknown causes during his campaign in Ionia. Cyrus sent Harpagus to complete Mazares's conquest of Asia Minor. Harpagus captured Lycia , Aeolia and Caria , using the technique of building earthworks to breach the walls of besieged cities, a method unknown to the Greeks. He ended his conquest of

22630-575: Was rather small in quantity compared to the other local productions of coins in Asia Minor, or the circulation of Greek coins in the area. Although the gold Daric became an international currency which was found throughout the Ancient world, the circulation of the silver Sigloi remained very much limited to Asia Minor: important hoards of Sigloi are only found in these areas, and finds of Sigloi beyond are always very limited and marginal compared to Greek coins, even in Achaemenid territories. Darius introduced

22785-515: Was ravaging Lydia, during which he was accidentally hit by the spear thrown by the Phrygian prince Adrastus , who had previously exiled himself to Lydia after accidentally killing his own brother. Croesus also brought Caria , whose various city-states had since Gyges been allied to the Mermnad dynasty, and from where Croesus's own mother originated, under the direct control of the Lydian Empire. Thus, according to Herodotus, Croesus ruled over all

22940-434: Was seized without a battle, with little to no resistance from the populace. It is probable that Cyrus engaged in negotiations with the Babylonian generals to obtain a compromise on their part and therefore avoid an armed confrontation. Nabonidus, who had retreated to Sippar following his defeat at Opis, fled to Borsippa. Around 12 October, Persian general Gubaru 's troops entered Babylon, again without any resistance from

23095-578: Was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river (made famous by Midas ), which ran through the Lydian capital, Sardis . Later coins, including some in the British Museum , were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver. In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. He inherited great wealth from his father Alyattes, who had become associated with

23250-400: Was still the nominal governor of Parsa under Cyrus's authority—more a Prince or a Grand Duke than a King. His son, Hystaspes , who was also Cyrus's second cousin, was then made satrap of Parthia and Phrygia . Cyrus the Great thus united the twin Achaemenid kingdoms of Parsa and Anshan into Persia proper. Arsames lived to see his grandson become Darius the Great, Shahanshah of Persia, after

23405-474: Was succeeded by his son, Cambyses I , who reigned until 559 BC. Cyrus II "the Great" was a son of Cambyses I, who had named his son after his father, Cyrus I. There are several inscriptions of Cyrus the Great and later kings that refer to Cambyses I as the "great king" and "king of Anshan". Among these are some passages in the Cyrus cylinder where Cyrus calls himself "son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan". Another inscription (from CM's) mentions Cambyses I as

23560-419: Was taken prisoner, Spargapises committed suicide once he regained sobriety. Upon learning of what had transpired, Tomyris denounced Cyrus's tactics as underhanded and swore vengeance, leading a second wave of troops into battle herself. Cyrus the Great was ultimately killed, and his forces suffered massive casualties in what Herodotus referred to as the fiercest battle of his career and the ancient world. When it

23715-471: Was the king of Lydia , who reigned from 585 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC. According to Herodotus , he reigned 14 years. Croesus was renowned for his wealth; Herodotus and Pausanias noted that his gifts were preserved at Delphi . The fall of Croesus had a profound effect on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least", J. A. S. Evans has remarked, "Croesus had become

23870-458: Was the divine forefather of his family line. While the pyre was burning, it is said that a cloud passed under Hercules and with a peal of thunder wafted him up to heaven. Thereafter, he obtained immortality... by Omphale he had Agelaus, from whom the family of Croesus was descended... Moreover, the first coins were quite crude and made of electrum , a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver . The composition of these first coins

24025-452: Was there to see the aftermath. Herodotus also recounts that Cyrus saw in his sleep the oldest son of Hystaspes ( Darius I ) with wings upon his shoulders, shadowing with the one wing Asia, and with the other wing Europe. Archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan explains this statement by Herodotus and its connection with the four winged bas-relief figure of Cyrus the Great in the following way: Herodotus therefore, as I surmise, may have known of

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