VI.  Rise and Conquests of Cyrus.  While the Babylonian empire was sinking into decay, the Median kingdom on the north and east experienced a sweeping revolution.  Its cause was the discontent of the older Median population under the rule of the more barbarous Umman-Manda.  These later Scythian conquerors had, under their king Cyaxares, broken the power of Assyria and fallen heir to its eastern territory.  The older elements found a leader in Cyrus, the king of Anshan, a little state among the mountains of Elam, northeast of Babylonia.  From contemporary inscriptions it appears that the followers of Astyages, who succeeded Cyaxares to the Median throne, rebelled against their king and delivered him over into the hands of Cyrus.  As soon as Cyrus became master of the Median Empire, he proved an able commander, a skilful politician, and a wise statesman.  Recognizing that he could hold in control the diverse and turbulent elements in his heterogeneous kingdom only as he kept them actively occupied, he at once entered upon a series of campaigns which in the end left him undisputed master of southwestern Asia.  In 547 B.C., two years after he became king of Media, he crossed the Tigris and conquered Mesopotamia, which had been held for a time by the Babylonians, Apparently he did not assume the title King of Persia until 546.  Appreciating the great strength of Babylon, he did not at first attempt its capture, but began at once by intrigue to pave the way for its ultimate overthrow.  In 545 he set out on a western campaign against Croesus, the king of Lydia, the ancient rival of Media.  After a quick and energetic campaign, Sardis, the rich Lydian capital, was captured, and Cyrus was free to advance against the opulent Greek colonies that lay along the eastern shores of the Aegean.  These in rapid succession fell into his hands, so that by 538 B.C. he was in a position to advance with a large victorious army against the mistress of the lower Euphrates.

VII.  His Capture of Babylon.  The campaigns of Cyrus were naturally watched with keen interest by the Jewish exiles in Babylonia.  The songs in Isaiah 14, 15, and 21:1-10, and Jeremiah 51:29-31, voice their joyous expectation of Babylon’s impending humiliation.  In a contemporary inscription Cyrus has given a vivid account of the fall of the capital.  Early in October of the year 538 B.C. he assembled a large army on the northern borders of Babylonia.  Here a battle was fought in which the Babylonians were completely defeated.  The town of Sippar quickly surrendered to Cyrus’s general, and two days later the Persian army entered Babylon.  The record states that the gates of the mighty city were opened by its inhabitants, and Cyrus and his followers were welcomed as deliverers.  King Nabonidus was captured and banished to the distant province of Carmania, northeast of the Persian Gulf.  In the words of Cyrus:  “Peace he gave the town; peace he proclaimed to all the Babylonians.”  In the eyes of the conquered, he figured as the champion