The
Rise of Cyrus
·
The Babylonian Empire reached its zenith under
the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Only 23 years after his death, Babylon would fall
to Cyrus the Great and the Babylonian Empire would cease to exist.
·
Meanwhile, a young man by the name of Cyrus had
succeeded in welding the two kingdoms of Media and Persia together into a
united alliance under his rule. From this base he had moved out and captured
the Kingdom of Lydia in Central Anatolia (modern Turkey)
·
After this, many of the smaller kingdoms that
made up the Babylonian Empire began to defect and give their loyalty to Cyrus.
It was only a matter of time before Cyrus marched on the city of Babylon itself
Fall
of Babylon
·
Medes and Persians lay siege to the city, which
was walled
·
Book of Daniel say that Babylon falls during a
great fast held by King Belshazzar, son of Neduchadzeer, wherein he and his
guests drink of the gold and the other items pillaged from the Temple
·
Outside that night, forces of King Cyrus the
Great of Persia find a way to get past Babylon’s heretofore impregnable
defenses (from Herodotus)
1. soldiers
dig canals to divert Euphrates into a
marsh
2. troops
make their way along river bed into town
3. just
then, a finger wrote on the wall for Belzhazzar, that his kingdom was even then
being overthrown – Daniel interprets (Daniel 5:17-28)
4.
Belshazzar makes king third most powerful in
kingdom, but “That same night, the king was killed. Then Darius the Mede, who
was sixty-two years old, took over his kingdom” (Dan. 5:30-31, CEV).
·
The Cyrus Cylinder gives and abreviated account
of the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and that it was accomplished without siege or
fighting.
Marduk, the Great Lord, a protector of
his people, beheld with pleasure his [Cyrus] good deeds and his upright heart
and ordered him to march against his city Babylon. He made him set out on the
road to Babylon going at his side like a real friend. His widespread troops —
their number, like that of the waters of a river, could not be established —
strolled along, their weapons parked away. Without any battle, he made him
enter his city Babylon, sparing Babylon any calamity.
·
Xenophon relates an account of how Gobryas, one
of Cyrus’ lieutenants, succeeded in damming up the Euphrates River. His army
marched down the dry riverbed and into the city where they were able to capture
the city gates and open them, admitting the entire Median-Persian Army.
And when Gadates and his men saw the gates open they dashed
in pursuit of the others as they fled back into the palace, and dealing blows
right and left they came into the presence of the king; and they found him
already risen with his dagger in his hand. And Gadates and Gobryas and their
followers overpowered him; and those about the king perished also, one where he
had sought some shelter, another while running away, another while actually
trying to defend himself with whatever he could. (Xenophon, Cyropaedia, c.
370 B.C.).
· Cyrus is welcomed as a liberator
· Babylonia’s Downfall – 539/538 B.C.
1.
Predicted by the Bible: “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 13:19)
2.
Bible names
Medes as conquerors:
a.
The Bible even
foretold the power that would overthrow this mighty kingdom. “...The Lord has
raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon
to destroy it...” (Jeremiah 51:11)
3.
Names man who
would conquer Babylon: “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus ... I will
... open before him the two leaved gates...” (Isaiah 45:1)
4.
Details
confirmed by Cyrus cylinder in the Persian Hall of the British Museum
Who Were the Persians?
· Group of Indo-European tribes living east of the Mesopotamian region – part of modern Iran bordering Persian Gulf
· For the most part, they were left unbothered by the epic power struggles broiling to the west in Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt
· Only a few interior valleys supported the peoples; in part because of the geography, the Persians never really united into a single peoples but rather served as disparate vassal states to the Medes, who, from their capital at Ecbatana, controlled the area east of the Tigris river.
· The sudden rise of Persian power not only over Mesopotamia, but over the entire known world, has its center of gravity in a new set of ideas constellating around a new religion
Zoroastrianism
· 650 BC, a new religion suddenly took hold.
· Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek), his new religion and new gods captivated the spiritual and social imagination of the Persians.
· Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion
1. in Zarathustra's cosmos, the universe was under the control of two contrary gods, Ahura-Mazda, the creating god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil.
2. These two evenly matched gods are in an epic struggle over creation; at the end of time, Ahura-Mazda and his forces will emerge victorious.
3. All of creation, all gods, all religions, and all of human history and experience can be understood as part of this struggle between light and dark, good and evil.
4. Zoroastrianism, however, is a manifestly eschatological religion; meaning and value in this world is oriented towards the end of history and the final defeat of Ahriman and all those gods, humans, and other animate forces arrayed on the dark side of creation.
· It is not possible to underestimate how Zoroastrianism changed the Persian world and its sense of its own community.
· If the world and human history could be understood as an epic struggle between good and evil, a struggle whose ultimate trajectory is the establishment of good throughout the universe and the defeat of evil, then one's own role, as an enlightened people, in the world becomes vastly different.
· This political role in the world was put together by Cyrus, called The Great.
· Cyrus was a first in human history, for he was the first to conceive of an idea that would forever fire the political and social imaginations of the people touched by the Persians. That idea? Conquer the world.
· In 559 BC, Cyrus became the chief of an obscure Persian tribe in the south of Persia.
· A devoted Zoroastrianism, he believed that his religious duty was to bring about the eschatological promises of Zoroastrianism through active warfare.
· Cyrus saw his job as personally bringing about the victory of his god. As an extension of this, Cyrus would bring Zoroastrianism to all the peoples he conquered
· He would not force them to become Zoroastrian, though. For Zoroastrianism recognized that all the gods worshipped by other peoples were really gods; some were underlings of Ahura-Mazda and some were servants of Ahriman.
· Cyrus saw as his mission the tearing down of religions for evil gods and the shoring up of religions of gods allied with Ahura-Mazda.
· This ties in with his understanding of Judaism
1. Jews are captive
2. Cyrus lets them go – Decree of Cyrus, 536 B.C. (2 Chronicles 36:23) – 42,360 leave
3. Cyrus was visited in a dream by Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews. Aligned with Ahura-Mazda, Yahweh demanded to be worshipped in the land of Judah; Cyrus freed the Hebrews with the specific intent that they reintroduce the proper worship of Yahweh in the Temple at Jerusalem.
· By 554 BC, Cyrus had conquered all of Persia and defeated the Medes for control of the region.
· He soon conquered Lydia in Asia Minor, Babylon in 539 B.C.
· Great system of roads, some as many as 1677 miles (so-called Royal Road)
1. 1600 miles in 3 months
2. king’s relay messenger corps take one week (111 staging posts and fresh horses)
· Aramaic is basic language of the empire (Semitic language spoken by Jesus and the apostles)
· His son, Cambyses, conquered Egypt in 525 BC, but the Chaldeans revolted in Mesopotamia and the Medes revolted east of the Tigris.
· Cambyses's son, Darius I (reigned 522-486 BC; pronounced like "dry as," only with an unvoiced s), or Darius the Great, quelled the Chaldeans and Medes and worked on firming up the state. His great innovation was to divide the huge empire into more or less independent provinces under provincial governors (satrapies)
· From Darius on, monarch is called the “King of Kings”
1. high throne
2. gold jewelry
3. fragrant oils and cosmetics
4. approached with a bow to the ground, face down
5. king eats in a separate room when guests dine with him
· As tolerant as Persians were, Persian military is still resented by subject people
· Enter Athens
1. In 490 B.C., the Persians launched an expedition against Athens.
2. Met by Miltiades, who had been an outstanding soldier in the Persian army but ran for his life when he angered Darius. Unlike other Athenians, he knew the Persian army and he knew its tactics.
3. The two armies, with the Athenians led by Miltiades, met at Marathon in Attica and the Athenians roundly defeated the invading army.
1. This battle, the battle of Marathon (490 BC), is perhaps the single most important battle in Greek history. Had the Athenians lost, the Persians would have installed Persian government and culture as the norm in Greece long before the classical period in Greek history. All subsequent culture influenced by the Greeks would have been Persian culture.
· By 486 BC, the Persians would control all of Mesopotamia and, in fact, all of the world from Macedon northeast of Greece to Egypt, from Palestine and the Arabian peninsula across Mesopotamia and all the way to India.
· By 480 B.C., Xerxes I driven out of Europe
1. Xerxes – husband of Queen Esther in Bible
2. Artaxerxes I – Nehemiah was his cupbearer
· Persian empire hangs on for another century and a half, surviving numerous revolts and succession problems.
· Beginning in 340 BC, Alexander the Great wins battle after battle against the Persians
· In 331 BC, he crossed the Euphrates into Mesopotamia. In 330 BC he entered Babylon after Darius II had fled (eventually to be assassinated)
· End of Persia brings to an end the infinitely long history of Mesopotamia folded into a new history, that of the Hellenistic period and the Greek and later Roman domination of the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
· World’s first postal service
· Persian ruler was under the law
Sidebar: Who was Darius the Mede mentioned in the Bible?
Liberal scholars also rejected the historicity of Darius the
Mede, but recent scholarship has identified Darius the Mede with an ancient
govenor of Babylon named Gubaru. It has also been shown that Darius was
probably not a personal name; rather, it was a title of royalty (such as Caesar
was for the Romans).” source
According to Robert Dick Wilson (ISBE), history’s greatest scholar Semitic languages, Darius was appointed by Cyrus to rule over Babylon, a comparatively small portion of the vast Medo-Persian Empire, according to Daniel 9:1 (Darius "was made ruler over the Babylonian Kingdom"). This suggests that he ruled by appointment, rather than by conquest and thus would have been subordinate to Cyrus, who appointed him.
There are good reasons for identifying him with Gubaru, or Ugbaru, the governor of Gutium, who is said in the Nabunaid-Cyrus Chronicle to have been appointed by Cyrus as his governor of Babylon after its capture from the Chaldeans (Gubaru is another spelling for Ugbaru). source
From Daniel 6:28 we may
infer that Darius was king contemporaneously with Cyrus. Outside of the Book of
Daniel there is no mention of Darius the Mede by name, though there are good reasons
for identifying him with Gubaru, or Ugbaru, the governor of Gutium, who is said
in the Nabunaid-Cyrus Chronicle to have been appointed by Cyrus as his governor
of Babylon after its capture from the Chaldeans. Some reasons for this
identification are as follows:
(a) Gubaru is
possibly a translation of Darius. The same radical letters in Arabic mean
"king," "compeller," "restrainer." In Hebrew,
derivations of the root mean "lord," "mistress,"
"queen"; in Aramaic, "mighty," "almighty."
(b) Gutium was the
designation of the country North of Babylon and was in all possibility in the
time of Cyrus a part of the province of Media.
(c) But even if
Gutium were not a part of Media at that time, it was the custom of Persian
kings to appoint Medes as well as Persians to satrapies and to the command of
armies. Hence, Darius-Gubaru may have been a Mede, even if Gutium were not a
part of Media proper.
(d) Since Daniel
never calls Darius the Mede king of Media, or king of Persia, it is immaterial
what his title or position may have been before he was made king over the realm
of the Chaldeans. Since the realm of the Chaldeans never included either Media
or Persia, there is absolutely no evidence in the Book of Daniel that its
author ever meant to imply that Darius the Mede ever ruled over either Media or
Persia.
(e) That Gubaru is
called governor (pihatu), and Darius the Mede, king, is no objection to this
identification; for in ancient as well as modern oriental empires the governors
of provinces and cities were often called kings.
Moreover, in the
Aramaic language, no more appropriate word than "king" can be found
to designate the ruler of a sub-kingdom, or province of the empire.
(f) That Darius is
said to have had 120 satraps under him does not conflict with this; for the
Persian word "satrap" is indefinite as to the extent of his rule,
just like the English word "governor." Besides, Gubaru is said to
have appointed pihatus under himself. If the kingdom of the Chaldeans which he
received was as large as that of Sargon he may easily have appointed 120 of
these sub-rulers; for Sargon names 117 subject cities and countries over which
he appointed his prefects and governors.
(g) The peoples,
nations and tongues of chapter 6 are no objection to this identification; for
Babylonia itself at this time was inhabited by Babylonians, Chaldeans,
Arabians, Arameans and Jews, and the kingdom of the Chaldeans embraced also
Assyrians, Elamites, Phoenicians and others within its limits.
(h) This identification
is supported further by the fact that there is no other person known to history
that can well be meant. Some, indeed, have thought that Darius the Mede was a
reflection into the past of Darius Hystaspis; but this is rendered impossible
inasmuch as the character, deeds and empire of Darius Hystaspis, which are well
known to us from his own monuments and from the Greek historians, do not
resemble what Daniel says of Darius the Mede. Source
(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-persians.html):
Now the Persian nation is made up of many tribes. Those which Cyrus assembled and persuaded to revolt from the Medes were the principal ones on which all the others are dependent. These are the Pasargadae, the Maraphians, and the Maspians, of whom the Pasargadae are the noblest. The Achaemenidae, from which spring all the Perseid kings, is one of their clans. The rest of the Persian tribes are the following: the Panthialaeans, the Derusiaeans, the Germanians, who are engaged in husbandry; the Daans, the Mardians, the Dropicans, and the Sagartians, who are nomads.
The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following: they have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks imagine. Their wont, however, is to ascend the summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifice to Zeus, which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise offer to the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient times. At a later period they began the worship of Urania, which they borrowed from the Arabians and Assyrians. Mylitta is the name by which the Assyrians know this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta, and the Persians Mitra.
To these gods the Persians offer sacrifice in the following manner: they raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations; there is no sound of the flute, no putting on of chaplets, no consecrated barley-cake; but the man who wishes to sacrifice brings his victim to a spot of ground which is pure from pollution, and there calls upon the name of the god to whom he intends to offer. It is usual to have the turban encircled with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. The sacrificer is not allowed to pray for blessings on himself alone, but he prays for the welfare of the king, and of the whole Persian people, among whom he is of necessity included. He cuts the victim in pieces, and having boiled the flesh, he lays it out upon the tenderest herbage that he can find, trefoil especially. When all is ready, one of the Magi comes forward and chants a hymn, which they say recounts the origin of the gods. It is not lawful to offer sacrifice unless there is a Magus present. After waiting a short time the sacrificer carries the flesh of the victim away with him, and makes whatever use of it he may please.
Of all the days in the year, the one which they celebrate most is their birthday. It is customary to have the board furnished on that day with an ampler supply than common. The richer Persians cause an ox, a horse, a camel, and an ass to be baked whole and so served up to them: the poorer classes use instead the smaller kinds of cattle. They eat little solid food but abundance of dessert, which is set on table a few dishes at a time; this it is which makes them say that "the Greeks, when they eat, leave off hungry, having nothing worth mention served up to them after the meats; whereas, if they had more put before them, they would not stop eating." They are very fond of wine, and drink it in large quantities. To vomit or obey natural calls in the presence of another is forbidden among them. Such are their customs in these matters.
It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then on the morrow, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved of, they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine. When they meet each other in the streets, you may know if the persons meeting are of equal rank by the following token: if they are, instead of speaking, they kiss each other on the lips. In the case where one is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek; where the difference of rank is great, the inferior prostrates himself upon the ground. Of nations, they honor most their nearest neighbors, whom they esteem next to themselves; those who live beyond these they honor in the second degree; and so with the remainder, the further they are removed, the less the esteem in which they hold them. The reason is that they look upon themselves as very greatly superior in all respects to the rest of mankind, regarding others as approaching to excellence in proportion as they dwell nearer to them; whence it comes to pass that those who are the farthest off must be the most degraded of mankind. Under the dominion of the Medes, the several nations of the empire exercised authority over each other in this order. The Medes were lords over all, and governed the nations upon their borders, who in their turn governed the States beyond, who likewise bore rule over the nations which adjoined on them. And this is the order which the Persians also follow in their distribution of honor; for that people, like the Medes, has a progressive scale of administration and government.
There is no nation which so readily adopts foreign customs as the Persians. Thus, they have taken the dress of the Medes, considering it superior to their own; and in war they wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their own: and hence, among other novelties, they have learnt unnatural lust from the Greeks. Each of them has several wives, and a still larger number of concubines. Next to prowess in arms, it is regarded as the greatest proof of manly excellence to be the father of many sons. Every year the king sends rich gifts to the man who can show the largest number: for they hold that number is strength. Their sons are carefully instructed from their fifth to their twentieth year, in three things alone---to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Until their fifth year they are not allowed to come into the sight of their father, but pass their lives with the women. This is done that, if the child die young, the father may not be afflicted by its loss.
They hold it unlawful to talk of anything which it is unlawful to do. The most disgraceful thing in the world, they think, is to tell a lie; the next worst, to owe a debt: because, among other reasons, the debtor is obliged to tell lies. If a Persian has the leprosy he is not allowed to enter into a city, or to have any dealings with the other Persians; he must, they say, have sinned against the sun. Foreigners attacked by this disorder, are forced to leave the country: even white pigeons are often driven away, as guilty of the same offence. They never defile a river with the secretions of their bodies, nor even wash their hands in one; nor will they allow others to do so, as they have a great reverence for rivers. There is another peculiarity, which the Persians themselves have never noticed, but which has not escaped my observation. Their names, which are expressive of some bodily or mental excellence, all end with the same letter---the letter which is called San by the Dorians, and Sigma by the Ionians. Any one who examines will find that the Persian names, one and all without exception, end with this letter.
Thus much I can declare of the Persians with entire certainty, from my own actual knowledge. There is another custom which is spoken of with reserve, and not openly, concerning their dead. It is said that the body of a male Persian is never buried, until it has been torn either by a dog or a bird of prey. That the Magi have this custom is beyond a doubt, for they practice it without any concealment. The dead bodies are covered with wax, and then buried in the ground.
The Magi are a very peculiar race, different entirely from the Egyptian priests, and indeed from all other men whatsoever. The Egyptian priests make it a point of religion not to kill any live animals except those which they offer in sacrifice. The Magi, on the contrary, kill animals of all kinds with their own hands, excepting dogs and men. They even seem to take a delight in the employment, and kill, as readily as they do other animals, ants and snakes, and such like flying or creeping things. However, since this has always been their custom, let them keep to it. Buying and selling in a marketplace is a custom unknown to the Persians, who never make purchases in open marts, and indeed have not in their whole country a single market-place.
** ACTIVITIES:
1. How hard is it to predict the future? Make
predictions about the end of the school year. How many do you think will come
true?
2. How do you see God at work in the rise of Cyrus and Medo-Persia?
3. How can Christians be salt and light in the political arena?
[Some text for this lesson is excerpted from, and based in part upon, John T. Stevenson, Mesopotamia In The Age Of The Empires, and http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MESO/PERSIANS.HTM]