Cyaxares

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Cyaxares

Cyaxares, Hvakhshathra,Xasro (Kurdish) or Kayxosrew ( Uvaxštra, Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
??a?a???; r. 625 - 585 BC), the son of King Phraortes

Phraortes

Phraortes, also known as Fravartish , son of Deioces, was the second king of the Medes and the founder of Median government.Like his father Deioces, Phraortes started wars against Assyria, but was defeated and killed by Ashurbanipal, the king of Assyria....
, was the first king of Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
(Iran

History of Iran

History of Iran and Greater Iran consists of the area from the Euphrates in the west to the Indus River and Syr Darya in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south....
).

He reorganized and modernized the Median Army, then joined with King Nabopolassar

Nabopolassar

Nabopolassar was the first king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.He rose into revolt against the Assyrian Empire in 626 BC, after the last significant Assyrian king, Assur-bani-pal, died in 627 BC....
of Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
. This alliance was formalized through the marriage of Cyaxares daughter, Amytis with Nabopolassar

Nabopolassar

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq , is considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World....
as a present for his Median

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
wife to help with her homesickness for the mountainous country of her birth.

These allies overthrew the Assyrian Empire and destroyed Nineveh

Nineveh

Nineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq....
in 612 BC.

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Cyaxares, Hvakhshathra,Xasro (Kurdish) or Kayxosrew ( Uvaxštra, Greek

Greek language

Phraortes

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
(Iran

History of Iran

Nabopolassar

Babylon

Nabopolassar

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Medes

Nineveh

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
, Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
and the parts of Asia Minor east of the Halys

Halys

Halys may refer to:* The Halys River in Anatolia , Turkish Kizilirmak .* The Battle of Halys which is the first battle in antiquity that is 'datable' with any certainty and took place on May 28 585 BC, between the Medes and the Lydians along the Halys River and it's valley * In the Aeneid, Halys is a Trojan who defends Ae...
River, which was the border established with Lydia

Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
after a decisive battle between Lydia

Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
and Media

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, the Battle of Halys ended with an eclipse on May 28, 585 BC.

The conflict between Lydia

Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
and the Medes

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
was reported by Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
as follows:

"A horde of the nomad Scythians at feud with the rest withdrew and sought refuge in the land of the Medes: and at this time the ruler of the Medes was Cyaxares the son of Phraortes, the son of Deïokes, who at first dealt well with these Scythians, being suppliants for his protection; and esteeming them very highly he delivered boys to them to learn their speech and the art of shooting with the bow. Then time went by, and the Scythians used to go out continually to the chase and always brought back something; till once it happened that they took nothing, and when they returned with empty hands Cyaxares (being, as he showed on this occasion, not of an eminently good disposition) dealt with them very harshly and used insult towards them. And they, when they had received this treatment from Cyaxares, considering that they had suffered indignity, planned to kill and to cut up one of the boys who were being instructed among them, and having dressed his flesh as they had been wont to dress the wild animals, to bear it to Cyaxares and give it to him, pretending that it was game taken in hunting; and when they had given it, their design was to make their way as quickly as possible to Alyattes the son of Sadyattes at Sardis. This then was done; and Cyaxares with the guests who ate at his table tasted of that meat, and the Scythians having so done became suppliants for the protection of Alyattes.

After this, since Alyattes would not give up the Scythians when Cyaxares demanded them, there had arisen war between the Lydians and the Medes lasting five years; in which years the Medes often discomfited the Lydians and the Lydians often discomfited the Medes (and among others they fought also a battle by night): and as they still carried on the war with equally balanced fortune, in the sixth year a battle took place in which it happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became night. And this change of the day Thales the Milesian had foretold to the Ionians laying down as a limit this very year in which the change took place. The Lydians however and the Medes, when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them. And they who brought about the peace between them were Syennesis the Kilikian and Labynetos the Babylonian: these were they who urged also the taking of the oath by them, and they brought about an interchange of marriages; for they decided that Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis to Astyages the son of Cyaxares, since without the compulsion of a strong tie agreements are apt not to hold strongly together." (Histories
Histories (Herodotus)

The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Polis in the 5th century BC....
, 1.73-74, trans. Macaulay)

Cyaxares died ten years after the battle and was succeeded by his son, Astyages

Astyages

Astyages ; spelled by Herodotus as Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian language: I?tumegu), was the last king of the Medes, r....
, who was the maternal grandfather of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
through his daughter Mandane of Media

Mandane of Media

Mandana of Media was a Princess of Medes and, later, the Queen consort of Cambyses I of Anshan and mother of Cyrus II, ruler of the Persian Empire's Achaemenid Dynasty....
.

Cyaxares

See also

External links