...Cyrus the Great (Old Persian: 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁, , , Persian: کوروش بزرگ, Romanization of Persian) (c. 600 BC or 576 BC December 530 BC), also known as Cyrus II or Cyrus of Persia,Xenophon, Anabasis I. IX; see also M.A. Dandamaev "Cyrus II", in Encyclopaedia Iranica. was the first Zoroastrian Persian Shāhanshāh (Emperor). He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty.Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty)

It was under his own rule that the empire embraced all previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly, and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, from Egypt and the Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, to create the largest empire the world had yet seen. Read full entry

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