Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/926

Rh 008 CYAXAKES. was honoured at Phlius with a sanctuary clobc by the temple of Apollo. (Pans. ii. 13. § 8.) In other traditions Cvathus is called Eurvnonms. (Diod.iv. 36.) ' [L. S.J CY AX ARES (Kua|ap7)9), was, according to Herodotus, the third king of Media, the son of l*hraortes, and the grandson of Deioces. He was the most warlike of the Median kings, and intro- duced great military reforms, by arranging his subjects into proper divisions of spearmen and archers and cavalry. He succeeded his father, Phraortes, who was defeated and killed while be- sieging the Assyrian capital, Ninus (Nineveh), in B. c. 634. He collected all the forces of his empire to avenge his father's death, defeated the Assyrians in battle, and laid siege to Ninus. But while he was before the city, a large body of Scythians in- vaded the northern parts of Media, and Cyaxares marched to meet them, was defeated, and became subject to the Scythians, who held the dominion of all Asia (or, as Herodotus elsewhere says, more correctly, of Upper Asia) for twenty-eight years (b. c. 634 — 607), during which time they plun- dered the Medes without mercy. At length Cyaxares and the Medes massacred the greater number of the Scythians, having first made them intoxicated, and the Median dominion was re- stored. There is a considerable difficulty in recon- ciling this account with that which Herodotus elsewhere gives (i. 73, 74), of the war between Cyaxares and Alyattes, king of Lydia. This war was provoked by Alyiittcs having sheltered some Scythians, who hjid fled to him after having killed one of the sons of Cyaxares, and served him up to his father as a Thyestean banquet. The war lasted five years, and was put an end to in the sixth year, in consequence of the terror inspired by n solar eclipse, which happened just when the Lydian and Median armies had joined battle, and which Thales had predicted. This eclipse is placed by some writers as high as B, c. 625, by others as low as 585. But of all the eclipses be- tween these two dates, several are absolutely excluded by circumstances of time, place, and ex- tent, and on the whole it seems most probable that the eclipse intended was that of September 30, B.C. 6 10. (Baily, in the PhUosophkul Transactions for 1811 ; Oltniann in the Sdiri/}. der Berl. Acad. 1812 — 13; Hales, Analysis of Chronology, i. pp. "4 — 78 ; Ideler, Ilandbuch der Chronologie, i. p. 209, &c. ; Fischer, GriecUsclie Z<:Ulafeln, s. a. 610.) This date, however, iiivolves the difficulty of making Cyaxares, as king of the Medes, carry on a war of five years with Lydia, while the Scy- thians were nuisters of his country But it is ))retty evident from the atcoint of Herodotus that Cyaxares still reigned, though as a tributary to the Scythians, and that the dominion of the Scythians over Media rather consisted in constant predatory incursions from positions which they had taken in the northern part of the country, than in any permanent occupation thereof. It was probably, then, from b. c. 615 to B. c. 610 that the war be- tween the Lydians and the Medians lasted, till, both parties being terrified by the eclipse, the two kings accepted the mediation of Syennesis, king of Cilicia, and Labynetiis, king of Babylon (probably Nebuchadnezzar or his father),and the peace made bt'tween them was cemented by the marriage of Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, to Aryennis, the daughter of Alyattes. The Scytiiians were ex- CYCLIADAS. pelled from Media in b. c. 607, and Cyaxares again turned his arms against Assyria, and,* in tlic following year, with the aid of the king of Babylon (probably the father of Nebuchadnezz.ir), he took and destroyed Ninus. [Sardanapai.us.] The consequence of this war, according to HerodotiiN, was, that the Medes made the Assyrians their subjects, except the district of Babylon. He meaii^, as we learn from other writers, that the king of Babylon, who had before been in a state of doubt- ful subjection to Assyria, obUiined complete inde- pendence as the reward for his share in the destruction of Nineveh. The league between Cyaxares and the king of Babylon is said by Poly- histor and Abydenus (ap. Euseb. Chron. Arm., and Syncell. p. 210, b.) to have been cemented by the betrothal of Amyhis or Amytis, the daugli- ter of Cyaxares, to Nabuchodrossar or Nabuchodo- nosor (Nebuchadnezzar), son of the king of Baby- lon. They have, however, by mistake put thi; name of A8dahage8( Astyages) for that of Cyaxares. (Clinton, i. pp. 271, 279.) Cyaxares died afier a reign of forty years (b. c. 594), and was succeeded by his son Astyages. (Herod, i. 73, 74, 103 — 10, iv. 11, 12, vii. 20.) The Cyaxares of Diodorus (ii. 32) is Deioces. Respecting the suppo-scl Cvaxares II. of Xenophon, see Cyru.s. [P. S.J CY'BELE. LRhka.J CYCHREUS or CENCHREUS (Kvxpetii), a son of Poseidon and Salamis, became king of the island of Salamis, which was called after him Cychreia, and which he delivered from a dragon. He was subsequently honoured as a hero, and had a sanctuiiry in Salamis. (Apollod. iii. 12. § 7 ; Diod. iv. 72.) According to other traditions, Cychreus himself was called a dragon on account of his savage nature, and was expelled from Salamis by Eurylochus ; but he was received by Demeter at Eleusis, and appointed a priest to her temple. (Steph. Byz. s. r. Kvxpfios.) Others again said that Cychreus had brought up a dragon, which was expelled by Eurylochus. (Strab. ix. p. 393.) There was a tradition that, while the battle of Salamis was going on, a dragon Appeared in one of the Athenian ships, and that an oracle declared this dragon to be Cychreus. (Pans. i. 36. § 1 ; comp. Tzetz. a</ Lycopk. 110, 175 ; Plut. Thes. U), Solon.9.) [L.S.J CYCLI'ADAS (KuKAtciSas) was strategus of the Achaeans in b. c. 208, and, having joined Philip V. of Macedon at Dyme with the Achaean forces, aided him in that invasion of Elis which was checked by P. Sulpicius Galb;i. Li b. c. 200, Cycliadas being made strategus instead of Philo- poemen, whose niiiitar}' tjilents he by no means equalled, Nabis took advantage of the change t(. make war on the Achaeans. Philip offered to help them, and to carry the war into the enemy's country, if they would give him a sufficient num- ber of their soldiers to garrison Chalcis, Oreus, and Corinth in the mean time ; but they saw through his plan, which was to obtain hostages from them and so to force them into a war with the Romans. Cycliadas therefore answered, that their laws pre- cluded them from discussing any proposal except that for which the assembly was summoned, and this conduct reliet-ed him from the imputation, under which he had previously Liboured, of being a mere creature of the king's. In B. c. 198 we find him an exile at the court of Philip, whom lie attended in that vcar at his conference with Fia-