Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
them… I will impose my monarchy on no nation...and if any one of them rejects it, I nev-
er resolve on war to reign'.
Cyrus colonised the old Median capital at
Ecbatana, redeveloped Shush and built himself
a new home at Pasargadae, establishing the
pattern whereby Persian rulers circulated
between three different capitals. Unfortunately
for him, the Scythian Massagetae from the
northeast of the empire decided he was indeed
imposing his monarchy on them. Cyrus fully incurred the wrath of the Massagetae queen,
Tomyris, after he captured her son (who killed himself) and slaughtered many of her sol-
diers in a battle made especially one-sided because the Massagetae army were drunk on
wine planted by the Achaemenids. Herodotus writes:
When Tomyris heard what had befallen her son and her army, she sent a herald to Cyrus,
who thus addressed the conqueror: 'Thou bloodthirsty Cyrus, pride not thyself on this
poor success: it was the grape-juice…it was this poison wherewith thou didst ensnare my
child, and so overcamest him, not in fair open fight. Now hearken what I advise, and be
sure I advise thee for thy good. Restore my son to me and get thee from the land un-
harmed… Refuse, and I swear by the sun…bloodthirsty as thou art, I will give thee thy fill
of blood'.
Cyrus paid no heed to Tomyris, who gathered her forces for what Herodotus described as
the fiercest battle the Achaemenids had fought. Cyrus and most of his army were slain.
When his body was recovered Tomyris reputedly ordered a skin filled with human blood
and, making good on her threat, dunked Cyrus's head in it. Cyrus's body was eventually
buried in the mausoleum that still stands at Pasargadae.
In 525 BC Cyrus's son, Cambyses, captured most of Egypt and coastal regions well in-
to modern Libya. It was later recorded that Cambyses had quietly arranged the assassina-
tion of his brother, Smerdis, before he left. The story goes that while Cambyses was dis-
tracted in Egypt, a minor official called Magus Gaumata, who had an uncanny resemb-
lance to Smerdis, seized the throne. Cambyses died mysteriously in 522 BC while still in
Egypt. With the king dead, Darius I, a distant relative, moved quickly and soon had 'Gau-
mata' murdered. This 'justice' was glorified in a giant relief at Bisotun, near Hamadan,
where you can see Darius's foot on Gaumata's head. What we will probably never know
is whether Darius rid Persia of the so-called 'False Smerdis', or whether he murdered the
real Smerdis and cooked up this story to justify his regicide.
Rather than putting the Babylonians to the sword as
expected, Cyrus spared them and released the Jews
who had been held captive there.
