Cyrus

Cyrus the Great is historically important but how much does Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Brave To Be A King," tell us about him?

Tracing Aryan migrations, Keith Denison, Time Patrol Specialist, East Indo-European Protohistory, works backward from known history. On one mission, he goes alone to Iran in 558 BC at the end of the Median period. In 542 BC, Manson Everard, looking for the disappeared Denison, rides into the valley of the Kur at a time when:

"...the Great King had given so much law to his dominions that it was said a virgin with a sack of gold could walk unmolested across all Persia." -Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 65.

Everard reflects that:

in 558-553, the Persian king of Anshan, Kuru-sh (Koresh, Cyrus) came into conflict with his Median overlord, Astyages;
after three years of revolt and civil war, Cyrus led his Persians to victory;
next, he spent four years defeating counter-uprisings and Turanian invasions and extending his rule eastward;
in 546, King Croesus of Lydia, allied with Babylon, Egypt and Sparta, invaded but was defeated and annexed;
Cyrus' generals dealt with troublesome Greek colonies while the King fought Eastern barbarians;
in 542, Persia rules its conquests humanely and tolerantly;
in 539, Cyrus will fight Babylon and acquire Mesopotamia;
after another period of peace, he will die fighting barbarians beyond the Aral Sea.

"Manse Everard entered Pasargadae as if into a springtime of hope." (p. 67)

That "springtime" will affect post-Exilic Judaism and early Christianity. There is more about Cyrus but maybe that is enough for one post?