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CYRTIANS (Gk. Kýrtioi, Lat. Cyrtii), a tribe dwell­ing mainly in the mountains of Atropatenian Media together with the Cadusii, Amardi (or “Mardi”), Tapyri, and others (Strabo 11.13.3). According to Strabo, they were migrants and predatory brigands (11.13.3; cf. 15.3.1). He characterized the Cyrtians living in Persia proper in similar terms….

CYRUS i. The Name. ii. Cyrus I. iii. Cyrus II the Great. iiia. Cyrus II as Portrayed by Xenophon and Herodotus. iv. The Cyrus cylinder. v. The Tomb of Cyrus. vi. Cyrus the Younger.

CYRUS iiia. Cyrus II as Portrayed by Xenophon and Herodotus Xenophon, in his work The Education of Cyrus (Cyropaedia), makes Cyrus’s imperial founding the theme of a biography; for Herodotus, that founding (553-538 BCE) dominates only Book 1 of nine parts apparently devoted to the Persian-Greek wars decades later (492-479…

CYRUS i. The Name Cyrus (Latin form of Gr. Kûros, later also Kóros < OPers. Kuruš [spelled ku-u-ru-u-š], reflected in Elam. Ku-raš, Bab. Ku(r)-raš/-ra-áš, Aram. kwrš, Heb. Kōreš, and Eg. kwrš; see Iranisches Personennamenbuch I/2, pp. 23-24 no. 39; cf. NPers. Kūreš) is a Persian name, most notably of the...

CYRUS i. Cyrus I The evidence on the early Achaemenid king Cyrus I is as follows. Herodotus (1.111) attested that Cyrus the Great (see iii, below) was the son of Cambyses and grandson of Cyrus. Cyrus the Great himself claimed that he was “the son of Cambyses, the great king,…

CYRUS iii. Cyrus II The Great Cyrus II the Great (also known to the Greeks as Cyrus the Elder; b. ca. 600 B.C.E., d. 530 B.C.E.) was the founder of the Achaemenid empire. Birth and early life. That Cyrus’s ancestors had ruled the Persian tribes for several generations is clear…

CYRUS iv. The Cyrus cylinder The Cyrus cylinder (British Museum, no. 90920; Walker, p. 158; Budge, pl. XL; Rawlinson, pl. 35) is a fragmentary clay cylinder with an Akkadian inscription of thirty-five lines discovered in a foundation deposit by A. H. Rassam during his excavations at the site of the…

CYRUS v. The Tomb of Cyrus The tomb of Cyrus is generally identified with a small stone monument approximately 1 km southwest of the palaces of Pasargadae, in the center of the Morḡāb plain. According to Greek sources, the tomb of Cyrus II (see iii, above; 559-29 B.C.E.) was located…

CYRUS vi. Cyrus the Younger This prince (ca. 423-01 b.c.e.) was the second of the four sons of Darius II (ca. 424-05) and Parysatis (Plutarch, Artoxerxes 1.2) and a younger brother of Arsaces/Arsicas, later Artaxerxes II (405/4-359/8). The ancient Greeks called him “the Younger” (ho neṓteros or ho deúteros) to…

C ENTRIES: CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS   online entry caption text ČĀDOR (2) Figure 1. Women wearing cadors in Tehran during Revolution of I35S Š./1979. After Yād-nāma-ye awwalin sālgard-e enqelāb-e eslāmi-ye Iran 22 Bahman 1358, Washington, D.C., 1980. Detail of photograph by J. Rostami. ČAḠĀNA Figure 30. Musician depicted on a…

D’ARCY, JOSEPH (Pers. “Mester Bārūt,” “Qūlūnel Khan,” “Qonsūl Khan”; b. Portsmouth, England, 14 March 1780, d. Lymington, England, 17 February 1848), major (later lieutenant colonel) in the British Royal Artillery who arrived in Persia in 1226/1811 with the ambassador Sir Gore Ouseley. He was one of a group of British…

D’ARCY, WILLIAM KNOX (b. Newton Abbot, Devonshire, England, 11 October 1849, d. Stanmore, Middlesex, England, 1 May 1917), petroleum entrepreneur and founder of the oil industry in Persia and the Middle East. The only son of an Irish solicitor, D’Arcy received his early education at Westminster School, London. The family…