Cyrus The Great

Pictures and text in the following pages are from “The Persian Army, 560-330 BC” by Nick Sekunda with drawings by Simon Chew, Osprey Publishing Ltd. London SW3.

“When Alexander defeated Darius III at the battle of Issus in 333 BC” writes Nick Sekunda, he appointed Abdalonymus as the king of Sidon. The King subsequently commisioned what is now known as the “Alexander Sarcophagus”. It shows on various friezes Persians and Macedonians in combat at Issus.

Sekunda adds that the Sarcophagus can be used with a second historical monument known as the “Alexander Mosaic” from Pompaii to piece together details of robes and colours.

In the pictures that follow, Simon Chew has used the above historical monuments as a basis of reconstructing military robes and their colours.

In the pages that follow you will see a profussion of purple and safron worn by the Persian army. Sekunda & Chew report that “true ’sea-purple’ extracted from the murex shell, was the most expensive dye known in antiquity. Its value led the Persian kings to hoard purple cloth and to distribute it munificently as a mark of their power”.

After purple they write ” the most valuable luxury dye was saffron. This was harvested by hand from the three rust red pistils inside the petals of the crocus blossom. These then have to be carefully toasted dry. Properly dried, saffron will keep for a century. After purple the most commonly found colour to use for battle robes was saffron.” The crocus occurs spontaneously in Iran and its cultivation has been recorded in a number of Iranian provinces. Saffron as a dye and food colouring still constitutes an export earing commodity for Iran.

Crossing the Murghab plain in 330 BC, an army threaded its way along the flank of a steep, wooded gorge above the stream known today as the Pulvar. The troops were under the command of the young Macedonian conqueror Alexander, who was pressing eastward, dreaming of empire. They entered a broad, grassy valley. Half hidden by a cluster of gnarled trees, they caught a glimpse of a structure that, for a solemn moment, would bring their impatient general to a halt.

Alexander had arrived at the site of the Persian capital of Pasargade and had come upon the tomb of an earlier, celebrated world conqueror, the Persian King Cyrus II, known as Cyrus the great. In his day, Cyrus had founded an empire of unprecedented size and power. Because Alexander hoped to surpass the Persian monarch’s achievements, he felt compelled to pause here and pay homage to his acclaimed predecessor.

One of Alexander’s comrades in arms, Aristobulus, gave an account of their visit to the tomb, which later found its way into the writings of the first-century-BC Greek geographer Strabo. It was “a tower of no great size,” Aristobulus reported, “concealed beneath the thicket of trees, in its lower parts massive, but its upper parts having a roof and shrine with a very narrow entrance.” The Macedonians cautiously entered the building, all of 200 years old at the time. They found themselves in the royal burial chamber, where according to Aristobulus, they beheld “a golden couch and table with drinking cups, and a golden coffin.”

There was also an inscription, cited “from memory,” by Aristobulus: “Oh man, I am Cyrus, who founded the empire of the Persians and was king of Asia. Grudge me not therefore this monument.” The Greek historian Plutarch, writing Alexander’s biography in the late first centuruy AD, reported that as a mark of respect Alexander had ordered a Greek translation of the Persian text to be carved alongside it. Plutarch also offered a somewhat more melodramatic version of Cyrus’s original text, which may have been taken from a source other than Aristobulus or embellished in its passage through the intervening centuries:”Oh man, whosoever thou art and from whencesoever thou comest, for that thou wilt come I know, I am Cyrus, who founded the empire of the Persians. Grudge me not therefore, this little earth that covers my body.

To the Persians paradise was a paradeisos or enclosure, a walled garden or parkland. In the arid land of the Persians, a green space well kept and watered filled with trees and shrubs was savored and tremendously enjoyed.

Cyrus II’s two palaces at pasargadae, designated by archaeologists as P and S above, stood in gardens as shown. Broad pathways facilitated strolling, while two airy pavillions encouraged contemplative viewing. Water running in channels beside the paths kept the gardens moist and added a glittering and cool effect. A throne was placed in Palace P’s portico so that one could view a large inner garden divided into four quadrants. This idea still prevails to this day in the design of Persian Carpets.