Cyrus II of Persia (530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the 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, before he allegedly died in battle with the Massagetae, a nomadic Eastern Iranian people, along the Syr Darya in December 530 BC. However, according to Xenophon of Athens, Cyrus did not die fighting and had instead returned to the capital city of Pasargadae. Regardless of the date of his death, he was succeeded by his son Cambyses II, whose campaigns led to the conquests of Egypt, Nubia, and Cyrenaica during his short reign.
To the Greeks, he was known as Cyrus the Elder (, ) and was particularly renowned among contemporary scholars because of his habitual policy of tolerance for peoples' customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. Similarly, he is exalted in Judaism for his role in freeing the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity by issuing the Edict of Restoration following the Persian conquest of Babylon. This event is described in the Hebrew Bible as the return to Zion, whereby displaced Jews were repatriated to what had been the Kingdom of Judah, thus enabling the resurgence of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Cyrus also facilitated Jewish aspirations for a new Temple in Jerusalem in the Achaemenid Empire's province of Yehud, where the original Solomon's Temple had once stood before being destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. His efforts resulted in the completion of the Second Temple, which marked the beginning of the Second Temple period and Second Temple Judaism. According to the Book of Isaiah, he was anointed by Yahweh and explicitly designated "messiah" for this task; Cyrus is the only non-Jewish figure to be revered in this capacity.
In addition to his influence on traditions in both the East and the West, Cyrus is recognized for his achievements in politics and military strategy. He was influential in developing the system of a central administration at his capital city to govern the Achaemenid Empire's satraps, who worked for the profit of both rulers and subjects. His realm's prestige in the ancient world would gradually reach as far west as Athens, where upper-class Greeks adopted aspects of the culture of the ruling Persian class as their own. Likewise, Cyrus's reign played a crucial role in defining the history of Iran for well over a millennium, as future Persian empires often viewed the Achaemenid era with deference and as the ideal example to emulate. His dynasty was also instrumental in allowing Zoroastrianism to develop and spread as far east as China. To this end, he remains a cult figure in modern Iran, with his Pasargadae tomb serving as a spot of reverence for millions of the country's citizens.
Etymology
The name Cyrus is a Latinized form derived from the Greek-language name Κῦρος (Kỹros), which itself 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 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 the Bible, he is referred to in the Hebrew language as Koresh (). 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 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.