Everything about Cyrus I Of Anshan totally explained
Cyrus I (Old Persian
Kuruš), was King of
Anshan from c.
600 to
580 BC or, according to others, from c.
652 to
600 BC. His name in Modern
Persian is کوروش, while in
Greek he was called
Κύρος.
Cyrus was an early member of the
Achaemenid dynasty. He was apparently a grandson of its founder
Achaemenes and son of
Teispes of Anšān. Teispes' sons reportedly divided the kingdom among them after his death. Cyrus reigned as King of Anshan while his brother was King
Ariaramnes of Persia.
The chronological placement of this event is uncertain. This is due to his suggested but still debated identification with the
monarch known as "Kuras of Parsumas". Kuras is first mentioned c.
652 BC. At that year
king Shamash-shum-ukin, of
Babylon (
668 -
648 BC) revolted against his older brother and overlord
king Ashurbanipal, of
Assyria (668 -
627 BC). Cyrus I is mentioned being in a
military alliance with the former. The war between the two brothers ended in
648 BC with the defeat and reported
suicide of Shamash-shum-ukin.
Cyrus I is mentioned again in
639 BC. At that year Ashurbanibal managed to defeat
Elam and became overlord to several of its former allies. Kuras was apparently among them. His elder son "Arukku" was reportedly sent to Assyria to pay
tribute to its King. Kuras then seems to vanish from historical record. His suggested identification with Cyrus would help connect the Achaemenid dynasty to the major events of the
7th century BC.
Ashurbanipal died in
627 BC. Cyrus presumably continued paying tribute to his sons and successors
Ashur-etil-ilani (
627 -
623 BC) and
Sin-shar-ishkun (
623 BC -
612 BC). They were both opposed by an alliance led by
Cyaxares of the
Medes (
633 -
584 BC) and
Nabopolassar of Babylon (
626 -
605 BC). In
612 BC the two managed to capture the Assyrian capital
Nineveh. This was effectively the end of the Assyrian Empire though remnants of the Assyrian
army under
Ashur-uballit II (
612 -
609 BC) continued to resist from
Harran.
Media and Babylon soon shared the lands previously controlled by the Assyrians. Anshan apparently fell under the control of the former. Cyrus is considered to have ended his days under the overlordship of either Cyaxares or his son
Astyages (
584 BC -
550 BC). Cyrus was succeeded by his son
Cambyses I of Anšān. His grandson would come to be known as
Cyrus the Great, creator of the
Persian Empire.
It has been noted that this account of his life and reign would place his early activities more than a century before those of his grandson. This would place his fathering of Cambyses very late in life and his death at an advanced age. It has been argued that Kuras and Cyrus I were separate figures of uncertain relation to each other. The later would have then reigned in the early
6th century BC and his reign would seem rather uneventful. Due to the current lack of sufficient records for this historical period it remains uncertain which theory is closer to the facts.
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