Cyaxares II

Cyaxares II was said to be a king of the Medes whose reign is described by the Greek historian Xenophon. Some theories have equated this figure with the "Darius the Mede" named in the Book of Daniel. He is not mentioned in the histories of Herodotus or Ctesias, and many scholars doubt that he actually existed. The question of his existence impacts on whether the kingdom of the Medes merged peacefully with that of the Persians in about 537 BC, as narrated by Xenophon (8.6.22, 8.7.1), or was subjugated in the rebellion of the Persians against Cyrus' grandfather in 559 BC, a date derived from Herodotus (1.214) and almost universally accepted by current scholarship.

According to Xenophon's Cyropaedia (1.5.2), Cyaxares II followed king Astyages to the throne of the Median Empire, and he was also the brother of Mandane, Cyrus the Great's mother (1.2.1, 1.4.7). He describes the Persian Cyrus as leading the campaign to conquer Babylon in 539 BC, while his uncle Cyaxares remained in Ecbatana. Cyaxares was by then an old man, and because Cyrus was in command of the campaign, the army came to regard Cyrus as king. After Cyrus invited Cyaxares to a palace he had prepared for him in Babylon, Cyaxares granted him his daughter (Cyrus’s first cousin) in marriage, with the Median kingdom as her dowry. Cyaxares nominally reigned from Babylon as head of the Medo-Persian empire for two years until his death, the real power being Cyrus'. Upon the death of Cyaxares, the empire passed peaceably to Cyrus.

Friedrich König claimed that Xenophon was confused about Cyaxares because this was the name of the father of Astyages. However, it was not unusual, especially among kings, for an individual to be the same name as his grandfather. This was the case with both Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II. Darius (I) Hystaspes had a grandson named Darius who was heir apparent but was killed before he could become king.

Cyaxares II figures prominently in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. In contrast, he is absent from the Histories of Herodotus, which leaves no place for Cyaxeres II. Herodotus says the Median king Astyages had no son, and that his successor as king of both Media and Persia was Cyrus the Great. The modern consensus of historians agrees with Herodotus. John Whitcomb wrote that Xenophon's Cyaxares II "was a mere figment of the imagination."

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