Cyrus the Great

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Apr 10, 2025

Guest

Lindsay Allen, a Senior Lecturer in Ancient Greek and Near Eastern History, along with Professor Emerita Lynette Mitchell and researcher Mateen Arghandehpour, dive into the captivating life of Cyrus the Great. They discuss his remarkable conquests, including Babylon, and his legacy of tolerance and governance. The Cyrus Cylinder is debated as possibly the first human rights declaration. Ancient narratives and the portrayal of Cyrus in the Hebrew Bible reveal the complexities of his character, as both a conqueror and a benefactor.

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ANECDOTE

Cyrus's Origin Story

Herodotus tells a story of Cyrus being exposed as a baby because of a prophecy.
Cyrus was raised by a cowherd and eventually overthrew his grandfather, fulfilling the prophecy.

INSIGHT

Xenophon's Political Interpretation

Xenophon's Cyropaedia is a political text exploring ideal leadership, not a historical account.
It presents Cyrus as learning from his grandfather and promoting willing obedience through rewards.

INSIGHT

Geopolitics of Cyrus's Conquests

Cyrus's conquest of Lydia began after defeating the Medes, whose king was Croesus's brother-in-law.
Astyages was the Median king, defeated by Cyrus, prompting Croesus's attack.

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Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the history and reputation of the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Second of Persia as he was known then was born in the sixth century BCE in Persis which is now in Iran. He was the founder of the first Persian Empire, the largest empire at that point in history, spanning more than two million square miles.

His story was told by the Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon, and in the Hebrew bible he is praised for freeing the Jewish captives in Babylon.

But the historical facts are intertwined with fiction.

Cyrus proclaimed himself ‘king of the four corners of the world’ in the famous Cyrus Cylinder, one of the most admired objects in the British Museum. It’s been called by some the first bill of human rights, but that’s a label which has been disputed by most scholars today.

With

Mateen Arghandehpour, a researcher for the Invisible East Project at Oxford University,

Lindsay Allen, Senior Lecturer in Ancient Greek and Near Eastern History at King’s College London,

And

Lynette Mitchell, Professor Emerita in Classics and Ancient History at Exeter University.

Producer: Eliane Glaser

Reading list:

Pierre Briant (trans. Peter T. Daniels), From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (Eisenbrauns, 2002)

John Curtis and Nigel Tallis (eds.), Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia (The British Museum Press, 2005)

Irving Finkel (ed.), The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia’s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon (I.B.Tauris, 2013)

Lisbeth Fried, ‘Cyrus the Messiah? The Historical Background to Isaiah 45:1’ (Harvard Theological Review 95, 2002)

M. Kozuh, W.F. Henkelman, C.E. Jones and C. Woods (eds.), Extraction and Control: Studies in Honour of Matthew W. Stolper (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2014), especially the chapter ‘Cyrus the Great, exiles and foreign gods: A comparison of Assyrian and Persian policies in subject nations’ by R. J. van der Spek

Lynette Mitchell, Cyrus the Great: A Biography of Kingship (Routledge, 2023)

Michael Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (Facts On File, 1990)

Vesta Sarkosh Curtis and Sarah Stewart (eds.), Birth of the Persian Empire (I.B.Tauris, 2005), especially the chapter ‘Cyrus the Great and the kingdom of Anshan’ by D.T. Potts

Matt Waters, King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great (Oxford University Press, 2022)

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