This week, I’d like to call to
your attention a holiday that is rising in popularity throughout the world,
which occurs on Saturday. October 29th: International Cyrus the
Great Day, marking the date that Cyrus and his Persian army took over the city
of Babylon without violence. Cyrus was the founding Emperor of the Persian
Empire, and his benevolence toward his native and conquered subjects was both
exceptional and long-remembered. The Greek historian Xenophon, writing in the
4th century BCE, remarked in his biography of the great king:
“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 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!”
Cyrus was renowned in his own
time as a liberator of the oppressed, a promoter of religious toleration and
cultural diversity, and an early champion of what we could call human rights.
These characteristics of his personality, and some of his heroic deeds, are
recorded in the Cyrus Cylinder, a proclamation made after Cyrus conquered
Babylon in 538 BCE without bloodshed. The text of this world-famous decree can
be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20180311235804/https://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/cyrus_cylinder2.html.
Cyrus is also remembered as a heroic figure to this very day by Zoroastrians
(his own community of faith, Jews, Christians, and Muslims – and his role as a
liberator of the Judean exiles and as a benefactor of the Second Temple in
Jerusalem are recounted in the biblical books of 2 Chronicles, Ezra,
Isaiah, and Daniel.
And so, after all these
preliminaries, I present this week’s poetical gem – an excerpt from a poem
about the Persian Empire by the first published poet in Britain’s North
American colonies – Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), making generous use of both historical
and legendary material drawn from her vast learning. It is followed by the
account of King Cyrus that is provided by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus
(37-100 CE), along with the original source from which Josephus derived his
information.
The Second
Monarchy, being the Persian, began under Cyrus, Darius being his Uncle and
Father-in-law reigned with him about two years.
Cyrus
Cambyses’ Son of Persia King,
Whom Lady
Mandana did to him bring,
She daughter
unto great Astyages,
He in
descent the seventh from Arbaces.
Cambyses was
of Achaemenes’ race,
Who had in
Persia the Lieutenant’s place
When
Sardanapalus was overthrown,
And from
that time had held it as his own.
Cyrus,
Darius’ Daughter took to wife,
And so
unites two Kingdoms without strife.
Darius unto
Mandana was brother
Adopts her
son for his having no other.
This is of
Cyrus the true pedigree,
Whose
Ancestors were royal in degree:
His Mother’s
dream and Grand-Sires cruelty,
His
preservation, in his misery,
His
nourishment afforded by a switch,
Are fit for
such, whose ears for Fables itch.
He in his
younger days an Army led,
Against
great Croesus then of Lydia head;
Who
over-curious of wars event,
For
information to Apollo went:
And the
ambiguous Oracle did trust,
So
overthrown by Cyrus, as was just;
Who him
pursues to Sardis, takes the Town,
Where all
that dare resist, are slaughtered down;
Disguised
Croesus hoped to escape in the throng,
Who had no
might to right from wrong,
But as he
past, his Son who was born dumb,
With
pressing grief and sorrow overcome:
Among the
tumult, blood-shed, and the strife
Brake his
long silence, cried, spare Croesus’ life:
Croesus thus
known, it was great Cyrus’ doom,
(A hard
decree) to ashes he consume;
Then on a
wood-pile set, where all might eye,
He Solon,
Solon, Solon, thrice did cry.
The Reason
of those words Cyrus demands,
Who Solon
was? to whom he lifts his hands;
Then to the
King he makes this true report,
That Solon
sometimes at his stately Court,
His
Treasures, pleasures pomp and power did fee,
And viewing
all, at all nought moved was he:
That Croesus
angry, urged him to express,
If ever King
equaled his happiness.
(Quoth he)
that man for happy we commend,
Whose happy
life attains an happy end.
Cyrus with
pity moved knowing Kings stand,
Now up and
down, as fortune turns her hand,
Weighing the
Age, and greatness of the Prince,
(His
Mother’s Uncle) stories do evince:
Gave him his
life, and took him for a friend,
Did to him
still his chief designs commend.
Next war the
restless Cyrus thought upon,
Was conquest
of the stately Babylon.
Now treble
walled, and moated so about,
That all the
world they need not fear nor doubt;
To drain
this ditch he many Sluices cut,
But till
convenient time their heads kept shut;
That night
Belshazzar feasted all his rout,
He cut those
banks, and let the River out,
And to the
walls securely marches on,
Not finding
a defendant thereupon;
Enters the
town, the sottish King he slays,
Upon Earth’s
richest spoils his Soldiers preys;
Here twenty
years provision good he found,
Forty-five
miles this City scarce could round;
This head of
Kingdoms Chaldees excellence,
For Owls and
Satyrs made a residence,
Yet wondrous
monuments this stately Queen,
A thousand
years had after to be seen.
Cyrus doth
now the Jewish Captives free
An Edict
made, the Temple builded be,
He with his
Uncle Daniel sets on high,
And caused
his foes in Lions’ Den to dye.
Long after
this he against the Scythians goes,
And Tomris’
Son and Army overthrows;
Which to
revenge he hires a mighty power,
And sets on
Cyrus, in a fatal hour;
There routs
his Host, himself she prisoner takes,
And at one
blow (world’s head) she headless makes
The which
she bathed, within a Bit of blood,
Using such
taunting words, as she thought good.
But Xenophon
reports he died in his bed,
In honor,
peace and wealth, with a grey head;
And in his
Town of Pasargadae lies,
Where some
long after sought in vain for prize,
But in his
Tomb was only to be found
Two Scythian
boys, a Sword and Target round:
And
Alexander coming to the same,
With honors
great, did celebrate his fame.
Three
daughters and two Sons he left behind,
Ennobled
more by birth then by their mind;
Thirty-two
years in all this Prince did reign,
But eight
whilst Babylon, he did retain:
And though
his conquests made the earth to groan,
Now quiet
lies under one marble stone.
And with an
Epitaph, himself did make,
To show how
little Land he then should take.
Cyrus the Great is enthroned at
his royal court. Painting by Jean Fouquet (1420-1481). (Image Credit: Public
Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Flavius Josephus: Jewish Antiquities – Book XI, Chapter 1
Translated by William Whiston (1667-1752)
1. In the first year of the
reign of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day that our people were
removed out of their own land into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity and
calamity of these poor people, according as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah
the prophet, before the destruction of the city, that after they had served
Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude
seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and
they should build their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And these
things God did afford them; for he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him
write this throughout all Asia: “Thus saith Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty
hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that
God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed he foretold my name
by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the
country of Judea.”
2. This was known to Cyrus by
his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies; for this
prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision: “My will is,
that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send
back my people to their own land, and build my temple.” This was foretold by
Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished.
Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the Divine power, an earnest
desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfill what was so written; so he
called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said to them, that
he gave them leave to go back to their own country, and to rebuild their city
Jerusalem, and the temple of God, for that he would be their assistant, and
that he would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighborhood
of their country of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver
for the building of the temple, and besides that, beasts for their sacrifices.
3. When Cyrus had said this to
the Israelites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the
Levites and priests, went in haste to Jerusalem; yet did many of them stay at
Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions; and when they were come
thither, all the king's friends assisted them, and brought in, for the building
of the temple, some gold, and some silver, and some a great many cattle and
horses. So they performed their vows to God, and offered the sacrifices that
had been accustomed of old time; I mean this upon the rebuilding of their city,
and the revival of the ancient practices relating to their worship. Cyrus also
sent back to them the vessels of God which King Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged out
of the temple, and had carried to Babylon. So he committed these things to
Mithridates, the treasurer, to be sent away, with an order to give them to Sheshbazzar,
that he might keep them till the temple was built; and when it was finished, he
might deliver them to the priests and rulers of the multitude, in order to
their being restored to the temple. Cyrus also sent an epistle to the governors
that were in Syria, the contents whereof here follow:
“King Cyrus to Sisinnes and
Sathrabuzanes sendeth greeting.
“I have given leave to as many
of the Jews that dwell in my country as please to return to their own country,
and to rebuild their city, and to build the temple of God at Jerusalem on the
same place where it was before. I have also sent my treasurer Mithridates, and Zerubbabel,
the governor of the Jews, that they may lay the foundations of the temple, and
may build it sixty cubits high, and of the same latitude, making three edifices
of polished stones, and one of the wood of the country, and the same order extends
to the altar whereon they offer sacrifices to God. I require also that the
expenses for these things may be given out of my revenues. Moreover, I have
also sent the vessels which King Nebuchadnezzar pillaged out of the temple, and
have given them to Mithridates the treasurer, and to Zerubbabel the governor of
the Jews, that they may have them carried to Jerusalem, and may restore them to
the temple of God. Now their number is as follows: Fifty chargers of gold, and
five hundred of silver; forty Thericlean cups of gold, and five hundred of
silver; fifty basons of gold, and five hundred of silver; thirty vessels for
pouring [the drink-offerings], and three hundred of silver; thirty vials of
gold, and two thousand four hundred of silver; with a thousand other large
vessels. I permit them to have the same honor which they were used to have from
their forefathers, as also for their small cattle, and for wine and oil, two
hundred and five thousand and five hundred drachmae; and for wheat flour,
twenty thousand and five hundred artabae; and I give order that these expenses
shall be given them out of the tributes due from Samaria. The priests shall
also offer these sacrifices according to the laws of Moses in Jerusalem; and
when they offer them, they shall pray to God for the preservation of the king
and of his family, that the kingdom of Persia may continue. But my will is,
that those who disobey these injunctions, and make them void, shall be hung
upon a cross, and their substance brought into the king's treasury.”
And such was the import of this
epistle. Now the number of those that came out of captivity to Jerusalem were
forty-two thousand four hundred and sixty-two.
1 Esdras 2:1-15 (LXX)
Translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1807-1862)
In the first year of Cyrus king
of the Persians, that the word of the Lord might be accomplished, that he had
promised by the mouth of Jeremiah; the Lord raised up the spirit of Cyrus the
king of the Persians, and he made proclamation through all his kingdom, and
also by writing, saying, “Thus saith Cyrus king of the Persians; The Lord of
Israel, the Most High Lord, hath made me king of the whole world, and commanded
me to build him an house at Jerusalem in Jewry.
“If therefore there be any of
you that are of his people, let his Lord be with him, and let him go up to
Jerusalem that is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord of Israel: for he
is the Lord that dwelleth in Jerusalem. Whosoever then dwell in the places
about, let them help him, those, I say, that are his neighbors, with gold, and
with silver, with gifts, with horses, and with cattle, and other things, which
have been set forth by vow, for the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem.”
Then the chief of the families
of Judea and of the tribe of Benjamin stood up; the priests also, and the
Levites, and all they whose mind the Lord had moved to go up, and to build an
house for the Lord at Jerusalem, and they that dwelt round about them, and
helped them in all things with silver and gold, with horses and cattle, and
with very many free gifts of a great number whose minds were stirred up
thereto. King Cyrus also brought forth the holy vessels which Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away from Jerusalem, and had set up in his temple of idols.
Now when Cyrus king of the
Persians had brought them forth, he delivered them to Mithridates his
treasurer: and by him they were delivered to Sheshbazzar the governor of Judea.
And this was the number of them; A thousand golden cups, and a thousand of
silver, censers of silver twenty-nine, vials of gold thirty, and of silver two
thousand four hundred and ten, and a thousand other vessels. So all the vessels
of gold and of silver, which were carried away, were five thousand four hundred
threescore and nine. These were brought back by Sheshbazzar, together with them
of the captivity, from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Rembrandt’s painting of King
Cyrus and the prophet Daniel, inspired by the account of Bel and the
Dragon, which is appended to the book of Daniel (as its
fourteenth chapter) in the Septuagint Greek and Latin Vulgate translations of
the Hebrew Scriptures. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
