Cyrus was an Achmaenid who formed and then ruled (from c. 559 - c. 529) the Persian Empire, extending from Lydia through Babylonia. He was the son of Cambyses I, king of Anshan, a Persian kingdom, in Susiana, and a Median princess. At the time, as Jona Lendering explains it, the Persians were vassals of the Medes. Cyrus revolted against his Median overlord, Astyages.
Cyrus conquered the Median Empire, becoming the first Persian king in the Achaemenid dynasty by 546 B.C. That was also the year he conquered Lydia, taking it from the famously wealthy Croesus. Cyrus defeated the Babylonians in 539, and is called the liberator of the Babylonian Jews. Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae, led an attack that killed Cyrus. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses II, who expanded the Persian empire into Egypt, before dying after 7 years as king.
A fragmented inscription on a cylinder written in Akkadian cuneiform, describes some of the deeds of Cyrus. It was discovered in 1879 during a British Museum excavation in the area. For what may be modern political reasons, it has been used to champion Cyrus as the creator of the first human rights document. There is a translation deemed by many to be a false one that would lead to such an interpretation. The following is not from that translation, but, instead, from one that uses more circumspect language. It does not, for instance, say Cyrus freed all the slaves.
Read the British Museum's translated Cyrus Cylinder.
