OYRRHESTICE.
 

CYRUS.
 

 fe.» • .ed the Jews, whom he expelled from Alex-

 auiLcea; and after a long protracted  struggle he

 protured the desposition of Nestorius, bishop of

 Constantinople.   He was  the  author of a large

 number  of works,  many of whieh  are  extant;

 but in a literary view they are almost worthless.

 The best edition is by Aubert, Paris,  1638, 6

 vols, fol

   Cyrrhestice (KvpfiecmKij),  the  name  given

 inder the Seleucidee to a province of Syria, ly-

 mg between Commagene on the north and  the

 plain of Antioch  on the south, between Mount

 Amanus on the west and  the  Euphrates on  the

 east.   After  the time of Constantine, it was

 suited with Commagene into  one  province,  un-

, ier the name of Euphratesia.

 .  Cyrrhus  or  Cyrus (Kvfi^og,  Kvpog: now

 Korus $), a city of Syria, founded under the  Se-

 Ieucidae, and called  after the  eity  of the same

 name in  Macedonia; chiefly remarkable  as  the

 residence and see of Theodoret, who describes

 its poverty,  which  he did  much  to  relieve.

 Justinian rebuilt  the walls,  and  erected  an

 aqueduct.

   Cyrrhus, a town in Macedonia, near Pella.

   Cyrus  (Ktipoc).  1.  The Elder, the founder

 of the Persian empire. The  history of his life

 was overlaid in  ancient times with  fables and

 romances, and is related differently by Herodo¬

 tus, Ctesias, and Xenophon.   The  account  of

 Herodotus best  preserves the genuine Persian

 legend, and is to be preferred to those of Ctesias

 and Xenophon.   It  is as  follows:  Cyrus was

 the son of  Oambyses, a noble  Persian, and  of

 Mandane, daughter of the Median king Astyages.

 In consequence of a dream,  which  seemed to

 portend that his  grandson  should be master of

 Asia, Astyages sent  for his daughter when she

 was pregnant; and,  upon  her giving birth to a

 son, he committed it to Harpagus, his confiden¬

 tial attendant, with orders to kill it.  Harpagus

 gave it to a herdsman  of Astyages, who was to

 expose it.  But the  wife of the herdsman hav¬

 ing brought forth a still-born  child, they substi¬

 tuted the latter for  the child  oi Mandane, who

 was reared as the son of the headsman.   When

 he was ten years old, his  true parentage was

 discovered by the following  incident.  In the

 sports of his village, the boys chose Km  for

 tneir king.  One of the boys, the son of a noble

 Median named Artembares, disobeyed hia com¬

 mands, and Cyrus caused  him to be severely

 scourged.  Artembares complained to Astyages,

 who sent for Cyrus, in whose person and cour¬

 age he  discovered  his  daughter's  son.  The

 herdsman  and Harpagus, being summoned  be¬

 fore the king, told him the truth.  Astyages for¬

 gave  the herdsman,  but  revenged  himself on

 Harpagus by serving up to him at a banquet the

 flesh  of his own  son.  As to  his grandson,  by

 the advice of the  Magians, who assured him that

 his dreams were  fulfilled  by  the boy's having

 been a king in sport,  he  sent him  back to  his

 parents  in  Persia   When Cyrus grew up, he

 conspired with Harpagus to dethrone his grand¬

 father.   He induced the Persians to revolt from

 the Median supremacy, and at  their head march¬

 ed against Astyages.  The latter had given  the

 command  of his  forces to Harpagus, who  de¬

 serted to  Cyrus.   Astyages  thereupon placed

 himself at the head of hrs tr oops, but  was defeat

            238
 

 sd by Cyrus and taken prisoner, B.O. 559.  The

 Medes accepted Cyrus for their  king, and thus

 the supremacy which they had held passed to

 the Persians.  It was probably at this time that

 Cyrus received that name, which is a Persian

 word (Kohr), signifying the Sun.  Cyrus  now

 proceeded to conquer the other parts of Asia

 In 526 he overthrew the Lydian monarchy, and

 took  Crcesus  prisoner.   Vid  Crcssus.   The

 Greek cities in Asia Minor were subdued by his

 general Harpagus.  He  next turned his arms

 against the Assyrian empire, of which Babylon

 was then the capital.  After defeating the Baby¬

 lonians in battle, he laid siege to the  city, and

 after a long time  be took it by diverting the

 course of the Euphrates, which flowed through

 the midst of it, so that his soldiers entered Bab¬

 ylon by the bed of  the river.  This waa in 638.

 Subsequently  he crossed the Araxes,  with the

 intention of subduing the Massagetaa, a Scythian

 people, but he was  defeated and slain in battle.

 Tomyris, the queen  of the Massagetaa, out off his

 head, and threw it into a bag filled with human

 blood, that he  might satiate  himself (she said)

 with  blood.   He was killed in 629.   He  was

 succeeded by his   son  Cambyses.   Xenophon

 represents Cyrus as brought up  at his grand¬

 father's court,  as serving in the Median army

 under his unele Cyaxares II, the son and  suc¬

 cessor of Astyages, of  whom Herodotus  and

 Ctesias know  nothing ;  as making  war upon

 Babylon simply as  the general of  Cyaxares; as

 marrying the  daughter  of  Cyaxares;  and at

 length dying quietly in his bed, after a sage and

 Socratie  discourse  to  his  children and friends.

 Xenophon's  account is preserved in the Cyro-

pedla, in which he  draws a  picture of what a

 wise  and just prince ought to be.   The work

 must not be  regarded as a genuine history.  In

 the East Cyrus was long regarded as the great¬

 est hero of antiquity, and hence  the fables by

 which his history is obscured.  His sepulchre

 at Pasargadaa was  visited by Alexander the

 Great.  The tomb  has perished,  but the name

 is found on  monuments  at Murghab, north of

 Persepolis.—2. The Younger, the second of the

 four sons of  Darius  Nothus, king of  Persia, and

 of Parysatis, was appointed by his  father com¬

 mander of the maritime parts of Asia Minor, and

 satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadoeia, B.C.

 407.    He assisted  Lysander and the Lacedae¬

 monians with large  sums of money in their war

 against the Athenians.  Cyrus was of a daring

 and ambitious  temper.   On  the death of bis

 father and the accession of his elder brother  Ar¬

 taxerxes  Mnemon,  404, Cyrus formed  a plot

 against the fife of Artaxerxes.  His design was

 betrayed by Tissaphernes to the king, who con¬

 demned him to death; but, on  the intercession

 of Parysatis, he spared his life and sent him

 back to his satrapy. Cyrus  now  gave himself

 up to the design of  dethroning his brother.  He

 collected a powerful native army, but he placed

 his chief reliance on a force  of Greek  merce¬

 naries.  He  set  out from Sardis  in the spring

 of 401, and, having erosse'l  the  Euphrates at

 Thapsaeus, marched down t <e river to the plain

 of Cunaxa, five  hundred stadia from Babylon.

 Here  he found  Artaxerxes prepared to meet

 him.  Artaxerxes had from four hundred thou

 sand to a million of men;  Cyrus had about on*