Cyrus the Great and Babylon, 539 BCE

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The Median kingdom held the Iranian plateau from its capital Ecbatana. Lydia ruled western Anatolia from Sardis. The Neo-Babylonian kingdom held Mesopotamia and the Levant. Anshan, in Persis, was ruled by Cyrus, who calls himself king of Anshan on the Cylinder.

The shapes on this map are illustrative spheres of rule. They are not borders. Ancient states did not draw borders the way modern maps do.

Sources: M. Cogan (translation), adapted to H. Schaudig’s edition, The Cyrus Cylinder, lines 1 to 45, The Context of Scripture, vol. II, 2003, line 21 (Livius.org edition) Secondary source · A. K. Grayson (translation), The Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, 1975, col. ii 1 to 4 (Livius.org edition of Grayson’s translation, with later corrections) Secondary source · P. Briant, trans. P. T. Daniels, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, 2002, ch. 1 To verify

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The Nabonidus Chronicle records it under the sixth year of Nabonidus. Astyages marched against Cyrus, king of Anshan. His army rebelled, seized him and handed him over. Cyrus marched to Ecbatana, the royal city, and carried its treasure to Anshan.

Later Greek writers tell longer, legendary versions of Cyrus’s youth. They are narratives, not records.

Sources: A. K. Grayson (translation), The Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, 1975, col. ii 1 to 4 (Livius.org edition of Grayson’s translation, with later corrections) Secondary source · M. A. Dandamayev, Cyrus iii. Cyrus II the Great, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1993 To verify · Herodotus, Histories 1.188 to 1.191, 430 BCE, 1.107 to 1.130 To verify Ancient narrative, not a record

1. Approaching from the north
2. The outer wall
3. The inner double wall
4. The Euphrates and its bridge
5. The Processional Way
6. Etemenanki, the temple tower
7. Esagila, the temple of Marduk
8. The houses of the city

Open the chapter: Babylon, the city

Sources: R. Koldewey, trans. A. S. Johns, The Excavations at Babylon, 1914, The outer city walls Verified · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Babylon, World Heritage List entry 278, 2019 To verify

1. The gate at the end of the street
2. A double gateway
3. Three entrances and moving joints
4. Brick, asphalt and reed
5. Rows of bulls and dragons
6. Never seen all at once
7. Glaze and colour
8. Cedar, copper and bronze

Open the chapter: The Ishtar Gate

Sources: R. Koldewey, trans. A. S. Johns, The Excavations at Babylon, 1914, The Ishtar Gate Verified

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The chronicle places the battle at Opis on the bank of the Tigris. The army of Akkad, meaning Babylonia, retreated, and Cyrus took plunder and killed people. On the fourteenth day Sippar was captured without a battle, and Nabonidus fled.

The exact site of Opis is still debated. Its point on this map is approximate.

Sources: A. K. Grayson (translation), The Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, 1975, col. iii 12 to 15 (Livius.org edition of Grayson’s translation, with later corrections) Secondary source · A. Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period, 2007, ch. 3 To verify

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On the sixteenth day, Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle. On the third day of the month Arahsamna, Cyrus himself entered the city. The chronicle notes that the temple rites of Esagila were not interrupted.

The Cylinder tells the same entry as the will of Marduk, who chose Cyrus and let him enter the city without fighting. It is a royal text in the Babylonian tradition, written for Cyrus.

Herodotus and Xenophon tell of the Euphrates being diverted so that troops could enter by the riverbed. These are ancient narratives. No Babylonian text confirms them.

Sources: A. K. Grayson (translation), The Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, 1975, col. iii 15 to 20 (Livius.org edition of Grayson’s translation, with later corrections) Secondary source · M. Cogan (translation), adapted to H. Schaudig’s edition, The Cyrus Cylinder, lines 1 to 45, The Context of Scripture, vol. II, 2003, lines 15 to 24 (Livius.org edition) Secondary source · Herodotus, Histories 1.188 to 1.191, 430 BCE, 1.191 To verify Ancient narrative, not a record

1. A clay cylinder
2. Written to be buried
3. Found in 1879
4. Forty-five lines round the clay
5. Two voices
6. Fragment B
7. Copies on tablets
8. Reading the Cylinder today

Open the chapter: The Cyrus Cylinder

Sources: The British Museum, The Cyrus Cylinder, museum number 1880,0617.1941 (BM 90920), collection record, 2026 To verify · I. Finkel (ed.), The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia’s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon, 2013, introduction To verify · M. Cogan (translation), adapted to H. Schaudig’s edition, The Cyrus Cylinder, lines 1 to 45, The Context of Scripture, vol. II, 2003, lines 1 to 45 (Livius.org edition) Secondary source

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In lines 30 to 34 the Cylinder lists cities beyond the Tigris whose gods had been brought to Babylon. It says Cyrus returned the images of the gods to their places and gathered their people back to their dwellings.

The books of Ezra and Isaiah remember Cyrus as the king who let the exiles of Judah return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. This is a religious tradition. The Cylinder does not name Judah or Jerusalem.

Historians debate whether this was a new, general policy or the usual practice of a new king in Babylonia. The views below set them side by side.

Sources: M. Cogan (translation), adapted to H. Schaudig’s edition, The Cyrus Cylinder, lines 1 to 45, The Context of Scripture, vol. II, 2003, lines 30 to 34 (Livius.org edition) Secondary source · A. Kuhrt, The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 8 (25), 1983, pp. 83 to 97 To verify · Hebrew Bible, Ezra 1:1 to 1:4, 400 BCE To verify Religious tradition

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Pasargadae was the first capital of the Achaemenid empire, founded by Cyrus. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 2004.

The tomb is a small gabled chamber of large limestone blocks, raised on six steps. David Stronach’s excavations from 1961 to 1963 recorded it in detail. The drawing follows his published proportions. Its dimensions are to verify against the report.

The section cut shows the chamber’s thick walls and its low doorway. Greek writers describe the tomb as it was when Alexander’s men saw it. Their accounts are narratives.

Sources: D. Stronach, Pasargadae: A Report on the Excavations Conducted by the British Institute of Persian Studies from 1961 to 1963, 1978, ch. 2, the tomb of Cyrus To verify · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Pasargadae, World Heritage List entry 1106, 2004 To verify · D. Stronach and H. Gopnik, Pasargadae, Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 2009 To verify

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The phrase ‘the first charter of human rights’ became widely used in the twentieth century. In 1971 the Cylinder was used as an emblem of the Iranian state’s celebrations of the monarchy’s anniversary, and a replica was presented to the United Nations. Both facts are to verify.

In 2010 the British Museum lent the Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran, and in 2013 it toured museums in the United States. Both facts are to verify.

Specialists, including the British Museum’s own curators, describe the Cylinder as a Babylonian foundation text in an old royal tradition. It speaks of justice and restoration in the terms of its time. It is not a declaration of rights in the modern sense. We describe these readings. We endorse none of them.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Iranica, Cyrus Cylinder, Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 2013 To verify · A. Kuhrt, The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 8 (25), 1983, pp. 83 to 97 To verify · I. Finkel (ed.), The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia’s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon, 2013, introduction To verify