CYRUS II

born 590, 580 BC, Media, or Persis [now in Iran] died c. 529, , Asia byname Cyrus The Great conqueror who founded the Achaemenian empire, centred on Persia and comprising the Near East from the Aegean Sea eastward to the Indus River. He is also remembered in the Cyrus legendfirst recorded by Xenophon, Greek soldier and author, in his Cyropaediaas a tolerant and ideal monarch who was called the father of his people by the ancient Persians. In the Bible he is the liberator of the Jews who were captive in Babylonia.