Jul 28, 2025According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, the king of Media marched against Cyrus, but the Median army rebelled against their own king and handed him over to Cyrus. The day the Median army joined Cyrus’s popular uprising and ended Astyages’ tyranny, peace and justice were restored to the Iranian realm.
The Iranian Median kingdom began with a just ruler named Deioces. However, around 559 BCE, a king known as Astyages adopted a tyrannical rule, causing widespread dissatisfaction among nobles and the general population.
According to stories and legends, Astyages humiliated several nobles and even sought to have his own grandson, Cyrus, killed when he was still an infant.
In any case, it seems that Cyrus the Great, amid this growing public discontent with Astyages, initiated a popular uprising against him. Eventually, the Median army joined Cyrus, leading to the downfall of the tyrant king.
Cyrus’s mother was Princess Mandana of Media, and his father, Cambyses, was a nobleman of Persia and king of Anshan. Thus, Cyrus had Median ancestry, and the Medes regarded him as one of their own.
According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, the king of Media marched against Cyrus, but the Median army rebelled against their own king and handed him over to Cyrus (1).
The day the Median army joined Cyrus’s popular uprising and ended Astyages’ tyranny, peace and justice were restored to the Iranian realm. The Iranians became a model for the world—so much so that great Greek philosophers, such as Plato, praised the Iranian people.
1- See: Nabonidus Chronicle, Column II, lines 1–2.
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