Across ancient Persia, different kings and peoples rose to power. They all collectively play a part of history that we can look at today. Many of them obtained varied goals and ideals throughout their respective decisions that helped them stand out. Their individual political strategies and military tactics are some of the most studied areas of specific reigns. The rise to power, the maintenance of power, and ultimately the fall and end are a commonality between them all. It was very common for members of the same family to follow the rule of their ancestors by continuing to hold power through their family. This remained true for King Cyrus II, or Cyrus the Great, as he rose to power after taking it from the Median King of Kings, Astyages. From this moment, Cyrus began his intellectual and powerful reign which would last several decades. It did not take long for him to begin to desire to expand and develop his kingdom, which seemed to have been one of his main goals. The inscriptions left behind are one of the ways that history has survived and can be interpreted by people today. Being left behind by different people and kings, trying to be able to get their stories across about what happened. These study tools now allow us to analyze and above all to better understand the events that took place during the development and the changes that occurred in ancient Persia. Cyrus the Great was an intelligent and powerful leader whose goal was to expand his kingdom, which ultimately led to his downfall. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Cyrus, the son of the local Persian king, came to power after seizing power and the place of king from his grandfather, Astyages. His grandfather was of Persian descent, while his mother was of Median descent. His family lineage allowed him to call himself king of the Medes and king of Persia. With kings constantly following in their family's footsteps when it comes to controlling power, it makes sense that Cyrus would become king. It seems that he did not want to wait until the end of his grandfather's reign to take away his place in order to control power. Having multiple family backgrounds and relationships for Cyrus could have benefited him greatly. This could have helped him build better relationships with these groups of people, saying that he was a lot like them. This linked him to other families and increased the bonds he could make. He married Cassandane, an Achaemenid princess, which would only help strengthen his power and connections throughout his empire. It was very common for powerful people to marry into their respective families to expand the kingship and be able to maintain power in their respective families. Together, Cyrus and Cassandane had five children. One of their sons, Cambyses II, would eventually succeed Cyrus as king. In order to continue the family's reign, Cambyses II would eventually like to have his own son, in order to be his successor. This would allow the family to continue their legacy and the power they had. Cyrus and Cassandane also had another son and three daughters. This allowed them to continue the family tradition of succeeding one another after his eventual death. It was important for them and their families to be able to maintain power and continue to intermarry with other strong families to strengthen their own. This allowed them to gain more power and support from different types of people to help them get started and continue to increase the number ofpeople under their rule when the time comes. “Cassadan, wife of Cyrus II, and Achaemenian, sister of Otanes and daughter of Pharnaspes… According to Herodotus, Cyrus loved her very much and, upon her death, ordered all the subjects of his empire to observe “great mourning” .This shows people today how much he cared for his wife and that he was extremely sad at the time of her passing and after everyone in his empire participates in it. This could lead us to believe that his family was very important to him through everything he did. The online encyclopedia suggests that she was eventually buried in Pasargadae after she died years after their marriage. King Cyrus' rise to power was not easy, as it happened during a battle against his own family line. It began with his rebellion, with a small army that would eventually defeat and capture Astyages, leaving him as the new king. It was there that Cyrus began to display his clever military tactics, capable of defeating a larger army. It didn't stop there as he wanted to continue expanding his empire. This would lead to a series of battles with different groups of people to bring them under the rule of the current king of Persia. In some cases, as with other rulers, it was up to the people of those areas to decide whether they wanted to voluntarily agree to be under his rule. The other option would be to fight over whether it would happen or not. It seems they wouldn't always want to fight if it could be avoided, thus giving people the opportunity to surrender to their power. This could have something to do with Cyrus and the general wanting to keep as many people in their army healthy. It was also that he wanted and expected people to like him from the start and stay away from himself and his great and powerful army. After the battle against the Medes and the change of power, with Cyrus taking power, the Lydian king, Croesus, saw an opportunity to develop. He crossed into mid territory, which came to nothing. After this, Cyrus decided to settle in their territory "and, in a historic battle, defeated the Lydians and captured Sardis." The battle started by Croesus did not have the result he wanted. There may have been and were clear consequences in Persian history of trying to start a battle and not ending with the desired result. The choice to try to overthrow Cyrus and his country ended in the opposite way he wanted, by making him angry. enough to follow him and start a battle. Then he left some of his people there to make sure they started following his rules and conforming to Persian ideals. This allowed Cyrus to become king of all his people, and at this point there was nothing more he could do. He tried to start a battle with Cyrus, then he had to make the decision to retreat. Cyrus was not happy with the attempted battle from the start and after the retreat he must have felt he could not allow them to walk away from something they had started. This ultimately ended with his entry into their land and the end of the battle that had been raised against them, thus contributing to the beginning of the growth of Cyrus' Persian empire. This added to the Persian Empire, which could have led to its desire to need to continue to grow. From then on, he began to expand the surrounding areas, with many accepting his positions without a battle. Cyrus and his army were very powerful and few people wanted to challenge them. As Cyrus continued to obtain more land in his empire, developing a number of cities under his rule, he wanted more. He was about to strengthen thelargest empire of the time, even calling itself "the ruler of the world". Meanwhile, after sending his general and other parts of his army in various directions in order to expand, he began to move east. While adding different cities to his empire along the way, he was close enough to Babylon to attempt to capture it as well. This would add another significant area of ​​land to his current empire. This battle could potentially continue his trend of adding large areas of land to his current empire that he already owned. All these battles showed some of the things he had in mind when he was king of Persia. He wanted to be able to make it as big as possible, and he was trying to avoid killing or hurting people. As a king, it would be easy to understand that he wanted to continue to increase the number of landed people in his charge. He wanted to have as many people as possible following his rules and under his rule. He let a number of different cities and regions accept that he was too powerful to hold and fall peacefully under his control. Furthermore, when he first took and defended his place as king against the Medes, and when the Lydians first arrived in his territory, he did not have the worst intentions to expand his empire. He then approached Babylon, which at the time had a rich and powerful king, Nabonidus. After a previous battle outside the city, “two days later the Persians took Babylon, which surrendered without a struggle, according to the Babylonian chronicle…Cyrus entered the city. in triumph… other sources however, the account of the fall of Babylon is completely different.” Scholars have recorded different accounts of what happened when Cyrus first entered Babylon. In the non-peaceful version, the alternate narrative Cyrus would have arrived in the city with more violent behavior. This led to a quicker battle than the usual battle, resulting in it now being part of the Persian Empire. This differed from most of his previous battles if the second account was to be true. It could be that he didn't like the way the city was run, or that he wasn't in favor with their king. The other possibility could be that this was a significant part of the land he wanted to own and he would get it by any means necessary. After this battle took place and Babylon was his, it led to an inscription known as the Cyrus Cylinder. The Cyrus Cyrus is an inscription of a cylinder with writings, taken from the account of Cyrus himself, as he wished to share some of his stories. This would be the time when he called himself “the ruler of the world”. The inscriptions on the cylinder illustrate how he wanted to be able to tell the story of this battle from his point of view, while still partially showing all the power he had. By this time he had acquired a large amount of land. He did not want to stop his expansion and sought to continue acquiring more land. From his account, calling himself that, he might have felt like he did all this work alone. Interestingly enough, he didn't try to change much in their country. “Cyrus treated his kingship as a union with the Babylonians… He also attempted to restore normal economic life to the country.” Babylon had already been conquered by Nabonidus, who wanted to control the people and forced them to live there. Once Cyrus was under control, he gave many freedoms back to these people, allowing them to put statues of their gods and figures across the country back on the cylinder. The Cyrus Cylinder is believed to be the first formreal, documented “human rights” based on allowing all of these people to be free. He freed the Jewish people who were forced to live there, allowing them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. It is a great mark of his legacy that he freed all the Jewish people to return to their land to rebuild and start their lives again after being in captivity for years. Under the previous leader, they had little power and could say how it was going to work. They were not able to live the way they wanted and had to follow his strict guidelines. Then, when Cyrus took over, they were able to be freer. He didn't want to impose much on them as king. He wanted to help them grow and allow people who wanted to live there to be there without being held against their will. "Nevertheless, the generally tolerant character of Cyrus' reign is confirmed by Jewish sources. Chapters 40 through 55 of the book of Isaiah were probably written by a witness to the fall of Babylon, and some extended passages are similar, both in their spirit than in their context, to contemporary Babylonian texts praising Cyrus and condemning Nabonidus. Cyrus' impact on the Jewish people was great then and he is still considered a wonderful person who contributed to their history. Cyrus allowing them to be free was a great choice and shows the type of person he was by doing this. He allowed everyone to practice their own religion and, according to this decision, he did not hold people captive. In a changing era of rulers and armies, his character stood out through his decisions made as a leader for everyone. From now on, he will always be an example for all those who have read and will read the Bible during their lives. By reading the book of Isaiah, people will see the decision he made and the impact it had on a religion. This just and correct decision allowed them to be free and start their lives again. It was greatly appreciated by them when it was written and will continue to be thanked for freeing them to achieve their goal. There has recently been a different translation of the Cyrus Cylinder. The article on the most recent translation states that it is written about his "account of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BC, of ​​its restoration in various temples of statues removed by Nabonidus, the ancient king of Babylon, and of his own work in Babylon. The cylindrical shape is typical of royal inscriptions from the late Babylonian period, and the text shows that the cylinder was written for burial in the foundations of the city walls of Babylon. It seems he wanted to tell his side of the story and had the inscriptions on this cylinder written the way he wanted to tell the story. If his account of the story is accurate, it is very revealing of how he treated the Babylonians once he was their king. Cyrus begins by describing himself with the titles "king of the universe, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four parts of the world." It begins with a description of all the power he believed he had over many different groups of people. By the time he added Babylon to his Persian empire, he already had many different cities and places under his rule, which gave him the impression of the power he had. This adds to the idea that he wanted to keep adding more and more land to increase the amount of power he had. Cyrus says that he and his army entered Babylon peacefully and that he came to treat her better than before. Nabonidus. At first they were unsure whether he would become leader, but he removed their doubt by being more lenient and”.