Cyrus the Great

Cyrus was now the king of the Medes and the Persians. He was a great warrior—but he was also known as a good and fair king. Even though he had conquered the Medes, he let the Median people stay in their own homes.

Now Cyrus decided to make his empire even bigger. He wanted to conquer Asia Minor. Asia Minor was ruled by King Croesus, who was the richest king in the world. He had more gold than anyone else. Cyrus knew that if he could conquer Croesus, he would be rich as well. So he marched his army up to the kingdom of Croesus and conquered it. He captured Croesus and made him stand up on the walls of his city and watch as Persian soldiers looted it. The soldiers went all through the city, carrying away armloads of treasures, gold coins, and jewelry. But Croesus just watched, calmly.

Finally, Cyrus said, “How can you be so calm? They are robbing you of all your gold!”

“No, they aren’t,” Croesus said. “The city belongs to you now. So they are actually stealing from you.” When Cyrus heard this, he stopped the soldiers at once and took all the gold back!

Next, Cyrus turned his army to the east. Cyrus marched the Persian army all the way over to the Indus River. Now he ruled all the land between Asia Minor and India. The Persian Empire was as wide as it was tall.

Cyrus wasn’t done conquering yet. There was one big enemy left for him: Babylon. Remember, the Babylonians had been ruling in Mesopotamia for a long time! They were an old kingdom—and a very powerful kingdom. Cyrus wanted all that good, fertile land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. But he knew that the Babylonian army was very strong.

However, Cyrus had one big advantage over Babylon. The Persians liked Cyrus, because he was a good, fair king. But the Babylonians hated their king. He had left the city of Babylon and had gone away to live in a distant desert. In his place, he had given his son Belshazzar control over the city. Belshazzar spent too much money on feasting and drinking, and not enough on the people of Babylon.

So when Cyrus marched his army to Babylon, he didn’t meet much resistance. The Babylonians were sick and tired of their own king. So they didn’t fight very hard when Cyrus’s army arrived at the walls. Some of the Babylonians even opened the gates from the inside and let him in! Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BC/BCE.

When Cyrus took over Babylon, he also took over Canaan. Canaan (also called Palestine) had been the home of the Jewish people, until Babylon and Assyria conquered it. The Babylonians and Assyrians had made the Jewish people leave their homes. But Cyrus was a merciful king. When he became the king of Babylon, he let the Jews go back to Palestine. And he let them go back to worshipping their own god. This made him even more popular. The Jews were so grateful to Cyrus that they called him, “The Anointed of the Lord.”

Now Cyrus was the greatest king in the world.

But there was still one country that didn’t obey Cyrus: Greece. And soon the Greeks and the Persians would meet in battle.

Note to Parent: The earliest Persians lived around 700 BC/BCE. Cyrus the Great ruled 559–525 BC/BCE.