Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/942

Rh >24 CYRUS. for Pasargadae. (Herodotus, lib. i.; Ctesias, ed. Lion ; Xenophon, Cyropaedeia ; Uiodorus ; Justin ; Strabo ; and other ancient authors ; Clinton, Fast. Hell. i. ii. supplements : Heeren, Ideen (JsialicRe- searclies) ; Schlosser, Univ. Geschich. d. alt. Welt ; Hbckh, Vet. Med. et Fers. Monum.) [P. S.] CYRUS, THE Younger, the second of the four sons of Dareius Nothus, king of Persia, and of Pa- rysatis, was appointed by his father commander (ko- pavos or aTpaTTiy6%) of the maritime parts of Asia Minor,and satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia. (b. c. 407.) He carried with him a large sum of money to aid the Lacedaemonians in the Pelopon- nesian war, and by the address of Lysander he was induced to help them even more than his father had commissioned him to do. The bluntness of Callicratidas caused him to withdraw his aid, but on the return of Lysander to the command it was renewed with the greatest liberality. [Callicra- tidas; Lysander; TissAPHERNES.] There is no doubt that Cyrus was already meditating the attempt to succeed his father on the throne of Persia, and that he sought through Lysander to provide for aid from Sparta. Cynis, indeed, be- trayed his ambitious spirit, by putting to death two Persians of the blood royal, for not observing in his presence a usage which was only due to the kiijg. It was probably for this reason, and not only on account of his own ill health, that Dareius summoned Cyrus to his presence, (a c. 40o.) Be- fore leaving Sardis, Cyrus sent for Lysander and assigned to him his revenues for the prosecution of the war. He then went to bis father, attended by a body of 500 Greek mercenaries, and taking with him Tissaphemes, nominally as a mark of honour, but really for fear of what he might do in his absence. He arrived in Media just in time to witness his father's death and the accession of his elder brother, Artaxerxes Mnemon (b. c. 404), though his mother, Parysatis, whose favourite son Cyrus was, had endeavoured to persuade Dareius to appoint him as his successor, on the ground that he had been bom after, but his brother Artaxerxes before, the accession of Dareius. This attempt, of course, excited the jealousy of Artaxerxes, which was further enflamed by information from Tissa- phemes, that Cyrus was plotting against his life. Artaxerxes, therefore, arrested his brother and condemned him to death ; but, on the intercession of Parysatis, he spared his life and sent him back to his satrapy. Cyrus now gave himself up to the design of dethroning his brother. By his affability and by presents, he endeavoured to corrupt those of the Persians who past between the court of Artaxerxes and his own ; but he relied chiefly on a force of Greek mercenaries, which he raised on the pretext that he was in danger from the hostility of Tissaphemes. When his preparations were complete, he commenced his expedition against Babylon, giving out, however, even to his own soldiers, that he was only marching against the robbers of Pisidia. When the Greeks leamt his real purpose, they found that they were too far committed to him to draw back. He set out from Sardis in the spring of B. c. 401, and, having marched through Phrygia and Cilicia, entered Syria through the celebrated passes near Issus, crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus, and marched down the river to the plain of Cunaxa, 500 stadia from Babylon. Artaxerxes had been informed by Tiflsaphernes of his designs, and was prepared to CYRUS. meet him. The numbers of the two amiies are variously stated. Artaxerxes had from 400,000 to a million of men; Cyrus had about 100,000 Asiatics and 13,000 Greeks. The battle was at first altogether in favour of Cyras. His Greek troops on the right routed the Asiatics who were opposed to them ; and he himself pressed forward in the centre against his brother, and had even wounded him, when he was killed by one of the king's body-guard. Artaxerxes caused his head and right hand to be stmck off, and sought to have it believed that Cyrus had fallen by his hand. Parysatis took a crael revenge on the suspected slayers and mutilators of her son. The details of the expedition of Cyrus and of the events which followed his death may be read in Xenophon's Anabasis. This attempt of an ambi- tious young prince to usurp his brother's throne led ultimately to the greatest results, for by it the path into the centre of the Persian empire was laid open to the Greeks, and the way was prepared for the conquests of Alexander. The character of Cyrus is drawn by Xenophon in tlie brightest colours. It is enough to say that his ambition was gilded by all those brilliant qualities which win men's hearts. (Xenophon, Hellen. i. 4, 5, ii. 1, iii. 1, Anab. i., Cyrop. viii. 8. § 3, Oecon. iv. 16, 18, 21; Ctesias, Fersica, i. 44, 49, Fr. Ii., Iii., liii., liv., Ivii., ed. Lion; ap. Phot. p. 42, b. 10, 43, b. 10, 44, a. 1 4, ed. Bekker ; Isocr. Panath. 39 ; Plut. Lys. 4, 9 ; Arta.r. 3, 6, 13—17; Diod. xiii. 70, 104, xiv. 6, 11, 12, 19, 20, 22.) [P. S.] CYRUS, a rhetorician, of uncertain age, is the author of a work Ilepl Aiacpopas ^.Taaewv in the Aldine collection of the Greek orators, reprinted, more correctly, in Walz's Greek Orators, viii. p. 386, &c. Fabricius suspects that the anonymous work entitled Upo§-/JiJ.aTa 'PrfTopiKo, els ^.rdcrei? was written by the same person. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vi. pp. 102, 128; Walz, /. c. ; Wester- mann, Geschichte der Griech. Feredtsainkeit, § 104.) [P. S.] CYRUS(Ki;pos), the name of several physicians. 1. Cyms (called also in some editions Syrus), a native of Alexandria, who lived in the fifth cen- tury after Christ. He was first a physician and philosopher, and afterwards became a monk. He is said to have been an eloquent man, and to have written against Nestorius. (S. Gennadius, de lllustr. Vir. c. 81.) 2. A physician at Edessa, one of whose medi- cines is quoted by Aetius (ii. 2. 91, p. 292), and who attained the dignity of Archiater. He must have lived between the second and fifth centuries after Christ, as the office of Archiater was first conferred on Andromaclius, the physician of Nero. {Did. of AnI. s. v. Archiater.) 3. A physician, probably of Lampsacus, son of ApoUonius, who obtained the dignity of Archiater. He is mentioned in a Greek inscription found at Lampsacus, as having, besides many other acts of liberality, presented to the senate one thousand Attic drachmae, i. e. (reckoning the drachma to be worth nine pence three farthings) forty pounds, twelve shillings, and six pence. (Spon, J/isce//cm. Erudit. A7itiquit. p. 142, quoted by Y&hnc Bibl, Graec. vol. xiii. p. 1 34, ed. vet. ) 4. A physician at Rome in the first century B. c, mentioned in a Latin inscription as having been the physician of Livia, the wife of Drusu^