Identifier: comprehensivedic00smit (find matches)
Title: A comprehensive dictionary of the Bible
Year: 1871 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, William, 1813-1893 Barnum, Samuel W. (Samuel Weed), 1820-1891, ed
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Publisher: New York, London, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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f Astyages had at thattime alienated a large faction of the Medes, andCyrus headed a revolt which ended in the defeatand capture of the Median king b. c. 559, near Pa-sargadae, supposed to have been about fifty milesN. E. of Persepolis, at the modern Murg-Aub. Al-ter consolidating the empire which he thus gained,Cyrus entered on that career of conquest which hasmade him the hero of the East. In b. c. 546 (?)he defeated Croesus, and the kingdom of Lydia wasthe prize of his success. Babylon fell before his CYR army, and the ancient dominions of Assyria wereadded to his empire (b. c. 588). (Belshazzar ;Darius the Mede.) Probably Cyrus planned aninvasion of Egypt; and there are traces of cam-paigns in Central Asia, in which he appears to DAD 201 have attempted to extend his power to the Indus.Afterward he attacked the Massageta?, and accord-ing to Herodotus fell in a battle against them b. c.539. His tomb is still shown at Pasargadse, thescene of his first decisive victory. In the absence
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Tomb of Cyrus at Murg-Aub, the ancient Pasargadse. of authentic details of his actions, the empire whichhe left is the best record of his power and plans.Like an Oriental Alexander, he aimed at universaldominion; and the influence of Persia, like thatof Greece, survived the dynasty from which itsprang. In every aspect the reign of Cyrus marksan epoch in universal history. The fall of Sardisand Babylon was the starting-point of Europeanlife. But the personal relations to Gods people,with which he is invested in the Scriptures, are fullof a more peculiar interest. Hitherto the greatkings, with whom the Jews had been brought intocontact, had been open oppressors or seductive al-lies ; but Cyrus was a generous liberator and ajust guardian of their rights. An inspired proph-et (Is. xliv. 28) recognized him a shepherd ofthe Lord, an anointed king (xlv. 1). The per-manent effects which Persia has wrought upon theworld can be better traced through the Jewishpeople than through any other chann

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