Cyrus the Great: Conquest and the Ideal King
100 Lives That Shaped the World · Episode 12
- Historical Biographies
- 41 min
- Ages 12–99
- 10 chapters
About this audiobook
A biography of Cyrus II that follows the rise of the Achaemenid Empire, the conquest of Babylon, imperial accommodation, and the sharply different memories preserved in Babylonian, biblical, and Greek traditions.
Why it's worth a listen
It tests the celebrated ideal of a tolerant ruler against conquest, royal propaganda, uncertain early sources, and modern reinterpretation of the Cyrus Cylinder.
A question to keep
How did Cyrus build an empire, and why have different traditions remembered his rule so differently?
Chapters
- A Cylinder Beneath Babylon
- Origins Behind Competing Stories
- Defeating the Medes
- Lydia and the Western Frontier
- Babylon, 539 BCE
- Ruling Through Difference
- What the Cylinder Does Not Say
- A Liberator in Biblical Memory
- An Ideal King in Greek Books
- Empire and Afterlife