Cyrus the Great’s Commitment to Pacifism (Part III)

Cyrus the Great (Second from left) on a horse =-drawn chariot , as he is driven into the city of Ecbatana

ISTANBUL (Daily Sabah) -- Cyrus, following his capture of Sardis, left Anatolia to continue to add to his conquests elsewhere, including that of Babylon. A general was dispatched by him to western Asia Minor, however, to expand the border of his growing empire right up to the Aegean Sea itself. In this way, all of western Anatolia became part of the Persian Empire, which it remained, save for some years of rebellion, until the entering of onto the stage of history in 334 B.C. another famous conqueror of ancient times, Alexander the Great.

However, if we remember the objectives of Cyrus enumerated by Ghirshman, while he achieved the first one, the second one of ensuring security in the east for his empire caused his downfall. Unlike the Aegean coastline which is a perfect natural border – one that served Cyrus and now serves modern Türkiye – Central Asia has the featureless steppe so memorably depicted by Leo Tolstoy in “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”; as such it is a forbidding place for those who want to set permanent boundaries.
In attempting to secure his eastern border, Cyrus is led into conflict with Central Asian people, the Massagetae, led by their warrior queen, Tomyris. According to Herodotus, Cyrus is killed in battle with the Massagetae, and Tomyris crows over his corpse in revenge for Cyrus having caused the death of her son. Historians debate whether or not there is any truth to what Herodotus believes as to the fall of Cyrus. To be fair to Herodotus, he even admits there are “different accounts” as to the matter, but whether or not this is how Cyrus actually met his end, Tomyris herself became a heroine of the Turks and women and girls bearing her name. Her name, with the spelling of “Tomris,” can be found in Türkiye today, most famously perhaps in the writer Tomris Uyar’s work.
It is clear that some of the claims of Herodotus ought to be treated with skepticism. Nevertheless, there is some very indirect and unusual support for his central claim concerning the fall of Sardis – the story about the camels and the horses. For approximately two-and-a-half millennia later, the previous traveler in this series Edward Lear has this to say when he was in Thessaly:
“In some meadows near a little stream flowing into the Peneus were several camels ...They were very hagged and hideous creatures but as I returned toward Tempe, I perceived a young one among the herd, and I rode a little way toward it in spite of the clamorous entreaties of the Ionnina muleteer. I had better have attended to his remonstrances, for the little animal (who resembled nothing so much as a large white muff upon stilts), chose to rush toward us with the most cheerful and innocent intentions, and skipping and jumping after the fashion of delighted kids, thrust himself into the way of our three horses with the most facetious perverseness. One and all took fright, and the muleteer’s reared, threw him and escaped. There was much difficulty in recapturing the terrified animal, and when we had done so, forth came the little muffy white beast once more, pursuing us with the most profuse antics over the plain, and rendering our steeds perfectly unmanageable.”
If a little fluffy camel can cause such equine confusion we can imagine that a whole train of them could well have disrupted the Lydian cavalry. Concluded