Cyrus was a petty king of the shrunken Elamite province of Anshan, which had been conquered by the Persians.  He claimed to be an Achaemenian—­that is a descendant of the semi-mythical Akhamanish (the Achaemenes of the Greeks), a Persian patriarch who resembled the Aryo-Indian Manu and the Germanic Mannus.  Akhamanish was reputed to have been fed and protected in childhood by an eagle—­the sacred eagle which cast its shadow on born rulers.  Probably this eagle was remotely Totemic, and the Achaemenians were descendants of an ancient eagle tribe.  Gilgamesh was protected by an eagle, as we have seen, as the Aryo-Indian Shakuntala was by vultures and Semiramis by doves.  The legends regarding the birth and boyhood of Cyrus resemble those related regarding Sargon of Akkad and the Indian Karna and Krishna.

Cyrus acknowledged as his overlord Astyages, king of the Medes.  He revolted against Astyages, whom he defeated and took prisoner.  Thereafter he was proclaimed King of the Medes and Persians, who were kindred peoples of Indo-European speech.  The father of Astyages was Cyaxares, the ally of Nabopolassar of Babylon.  When this powerful king captured Nineveh he entered into possession of the northern part of the Assyrian Empire, which extended westward into Asia Minor to the frontier of the Lydian kingdom; he also possessed himself of Urartu (Armenia).  Lydia had, after the collapse of the Cimmerian power, absorbed Phrygia, and its ambitious king, Alyattes, waged war against the Medes.  At length, owing to the good offices of Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and Syennesis of Cilicia, the Medes and Lydians made peace in 585 B.C.  Astyages then married a daughter of the Lydian ruler.

When Cyrus overthrew Cyaxares, king of the Medes, Croesus, king of Lydia, formed an alliance against him with Amasis, king of Egypt, and Nabonidus, king of Babylon.  The latter was at first friendly to Cyrus, who had attacked Cyaxares when he was advancing on Babylon to dispute Nabonidus’s claim to the throne, and perhaps to win it for a descendant of Nebuchadrezzar, his father’s ally.  It was after the fall of the Median Dynasty that Nabonidus undertook the restoration of the moon god’s temple at Haran.

Cyrus advanced westward against Croesus of Lydia before that monarch could receive assistance from the intriguing but pleasure-loving Amasis of Egypt; he defeated and overthrew him, and seized his kingdom (547-546 B.C.).  Then, having established himself as supreme ruler in Asia Minor, he began to operate against Babylonia.  In 539 B.C.  Belshazzar was defeated near Opis.  Sippar fell soon afterwards.  Cyrus’s general, Gobryas, then advanced upon Babylon, where Belshazzar deemed himself safe.  One night, in the month of Tammuz—­