A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

924 CYRUS.
for Pasargadae. (Herodotus, lib. i.; Ctesias, ed.
Lion; Xenophon, Cyropaedei; Diodorus; Justin;
Strabo; and other ancient authors; Clinton, Fast.
Hell. i. ii. supplements; Heeren, Ideen (AsiaticResearches); Schlosser, Univ. Geschich. d. alt. Welt;
HIckh, Vet. Med. et Pers. VlMo in.) [P. S.]
CYRUS, THE YOUNGER, the second of the four
sons of Dareius Nothus, king of Persia, and of Parysatis, was appointed by his father commander (.tdpavos or orTpa-TsYOs) of the maritime parts of Asia
Minor, and satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia.
(a. c. 407.) He carried with him a large sum of
money to aid the Lacedaemonians in the Peloponnesian 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. [CALLICRATIDAS; 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. Cyrus, indeed, betrayed 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
king. It was probably for this reason, and not
only on account of his own ill health, that Dareius
summoned Cyrus to his presence. (B. c. 405.) Before leaving Sardis, Cyrus sent for Lysander and
assigned to him his revenues for the prosecution of
the war. He then went to his father, attended
by a body of 500 Greek mercenaries, and taking
with him Tissaphernes, 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 born 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 Tissaphernes, 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
thle pretext that he was in danger from the hostility
of Tissaphernes. 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 learnt 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
Tissaphernes of his designs, and was prepared to

CYRUS.
meet him. The numbers of the two armies 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 Cyrus. 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 struck off, and sought to
have it believed that Cyrus had fallen by his
hand. Parysatis took a cruel 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 ambitious 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 the
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, Persica, i. 44, 49, Fr. li., lii., liii., liv.,
Ivii., ed. Lion; ap. Phot. p. 42, b. 10, 43, b. 10,
44, a. 14, ed. Bekker; Isocr. Pasnath. 39; Plut.
Lys. 4, 9; Artax. 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 nep ALap)opas 7rdarew 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 ITpoGkrjjaTa'ra 'Pyropuc I els 7'o'ELS
was written by the same person. (Fabric. Bibl.
Graec. vi. pp. 102, 128; Walz, 1. c.; Westermann, Geschichte der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, ~
104.) [P. S.]
CYRUS(Kupos), the name of several physicians.
1. Cyrus (called also in some editions Syrus), a
native of Alexandria, who lived in the fifth century 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
Illustr. Vir. c. 81.)
2. A physician at Edessa, one of whose medicines 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 Andromachus, the physician of Nero.
(Dict. of Ant. s.s. v.Archiater.)
3. A physician, probably of Lampsacus, son of
Apollonius, 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, Miscellan.
Erudit. Antiquit. p. 142, quoted by Fabric. Bibl.
Graec. vol. xiii. p. 134, 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 Drusaus