Cyrus the Great and the Rise of Persia

The event

Cyrus began as a regional prince ruling Anshan under the overlordship of the Median Empire. Around 550 BC he rose up against his own grandfather, the Median king Astyages, and folded the vast Median realm into his own growing kingdom. He then turned west and defeated the fabulously wealthy King Croesus of Lydia, and within a generation the Persians controlled more territory than any empire before them — stretching eventually from the Aegean Sea to the borders of India.

What makes Cyrus's rise remarkable for readers of Scripture is not merely its speed but its timing in the biblical story. More than a century before Cyrus was born, the prophet Isaiah had already named him — 'who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose' (Isaiah 44:28), and 'Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped' (Isaiah 45:1) — declaring that this specific, named pagan king would be raised up to free God's exiled people and see Jerusalem rebuilt. Long before Cyrus's armies marched on Babylon, the Lord had already claimed sovereignty over his career.

Cyrus also governed differently than the empires before him. Where Assyria and Babylon had deported and crushed conquered peoples, Cyrus generally allowed subject nations to keep their customs, laws, and gods, and even to return home from exile. This unusual policy of tolerance — soon to be extended to the exiled people of Judah — set the stage for one of the most pivotal turns in Old Testament history.

Dating

The exact year for Persia's 'rise' varies depending on whether one marks Cyrus's accession at Anshan (c. 559 BC), his overthrow of the Median king Astyages (c. 550 BC), or his conquest of Lydia (c. 547 BC). This entry follows the common convention of dating Persia's emergence as a great power to the fall of Media.