"Cyrus Cylinder" by Spenta Productions

 

Cyrus Cylinder

 

A declaration of good kingship

This clay cylinder is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform with an account by Cyrus, king of Persia (559-530 BC) of his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC and capture of Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king.

Cyrus claims to have achieved this with the aid of Marduk, the god of Babylon. He then describes measures of relief he brought to the inhabitants of the city, and tells how he returned a number of images of gods, which Nabonidus had collected in Babylon, to their proper temples throughout Mesopotamia and western Iran. At the same time he arranged for the restoration of these temples, and organized the return to their homelands of a number of people who had been held in Babylonia by the Babylonian kings. Although the Jews are not mentioned in this document, their return to Palestine following their deportation by Nebuchadnezzar II, was part of this policy.

This cylinder has sometimes been described as the 'first charter of human rights', but it in fact reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms. (From the British Museum)

Text of Cyrus Cylinder

Translation of the text on the Cyrus Cylinder by Irving Finkel

1. [When ... Mar]duk, king of the whole of heaven and earth, the ....... who, in his ..., lays waste his .......
2. [........................................................................]broad ? in intelligence, ...... who inspects} (?) the wor]ld quarters (regions)
3. [..............................................................…] his [first]born (=Belshazzar), a low person was put in charge of his country,
4. but [..................................................................................] he set [a (…) counter]feit over them. 
5. He ma[de] a counterfeit of Esagil, [and .....….......]... for Ur and the rest of the cult-cities.
6. Rites inappropriate to them, [impure] fo[od- offerings ….......................................................] disrespectful […] were daily gabbled, and, as an insult,
7. he brought the daily offerings to a halt; he inter[fered with the rites and] instituted […....] within the sanctuaries. In his mind, reverential fear of Marduk, king of the gods, came to an end.   
8. He did yet more evil to his city every day; … his [people ................…], he brought ruin on them all by a yoke without relief.  
9. Enlil-of-the-gods became extremely angry at their complaints, and […] their territory.  The gods who lived within them left their shrines,
10. angry that he had made (them) enter into Shuanna (Babylon).  Ex[alted Marduk, Enlil-of-the-Go]ds, relented.  He changed his mind about all the settlements whose sanctuaries were in ruins, 
11. and the population of the land of Sumer and Akkad who had become like corpses, and took pity on them.  He inspected and checked all the countries, 
12. seeking for the upright king of his choice.  He took the hand of Cyrus, king of the city of Anshan, and called him by his name, proclaiming him aloud for the kingship over all of everything.  
13. He made the land of Guti and all the Median troops prostrate themselves at his feet, while he shepherded in justice and righteousness the black-headed people 
14. whom he had put under his care.  Marduk, the great lord, who nurtures his people, saw with pleasure his fine deeds and true heart, 
15. and ordered that he should go to Babylon  He had him take the road to Tintir (Babylon), and, like a friend and companion, he walked at his side.  
16. His vast troops whose number, like the water in a river, could not be counted, were marching fully-armed at his side.  
17. He had him enter without fighting or battle right into Shuanna; he saved his city Babylon from hardship.  He handed over to him Nabonidus, the king who did not fear him.  
18. All the people of Tintir, of all Sumer and Akkad, nobles and governors, bowed down before him and kissed his feet, rejoicing over his kingship and their faces shone.  
19. The lord through whose help all were rescued from death and who saved them all from distress and hardship, they blessed him sweetly and praised his name.
    ------------------------------------------------- 
20. I am Cyrus, king of the universe, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world, 
21. son of Cambyses, the great king, king of the city of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, the great king, ki[ng of the ci]ty of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, the great king, king of the city of Anshan, 
22. the perpetual seed of kingship, whose reign Bel (Marduk)and Nabu love, and with whose kingship, to their joy, they concern themselves.  When I went as harbinger of peace i[nt]o Babylon 
23. I founded my sovereign residence within the palace amid celebration and rejoicing.  Marduk, the great lord, bestowed on me as my destiny the great magnanimity of one who loves Babylon, and I every day sought him out in awe.  
24. My vast troops were marching peaceably in Babylon, and the whole of [Sumer] and Akkad had nothing to fear.  
25. I sought the safety of the city of Babylon and all its sanctuaries.  As for the population of Babylon […, w]ho as if without div[ine intention] had endured a yoke not decreed for them, 
26. I soothed their weariness; I freed them from their bonds(?).    Marduk, the great lord,  rejoiced at [my good] deeds, 
27. and he pronounced a sweet blessing over me, Cyrus, the king who fears him, and over Cambyses, the son [my] issue, [and over] my all my troops, 
28. that we might live happily in his presence, in well-being.  At his exalted command, all kings who sit on thrones, 
29. from every quarter, from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, those who inhabit [remote distric]ts (and) the kings of the land of Amurru who live in tents, all of them, 
30. brought their weighty tribute into Shuanna, and kissed my feet. From [Shuanna] I sent back to their places to the city of Ashur and Susa, 
31. Akkad, the land of Eshnunna, the city of Zamban, the city of Meturnu, Der, as far as the border of the land of Guti - the sanctuaries across the river Tigris - whose shrines had earlier become dilapidated, 
32. the gods who lived therein, and made permanent sanctuaries for them.  I collected together all of their people and returned them to their settlements, 
33. and the gods of the land of Sumer and Akkad which Nabonidus – to the fury of the lord of the gods – had brought into Shuanna, at the command of Marduk, the great lord, 
34. I returned them unharmed to their cells, in the sanctuaries that make them happy.  May all the gods that I returned to their sanctuaries, 
35. every day before Bel and Nabu, ask for a long life for me, and mention my good deeds, and say to Marduk, my lord, this: “Cyrus, the king who fears you, and Cambyses his son,
36. may they be the provisioners of our shrines until distant (?) days, and the population of Babylon call blessings on my kingship. I have enabled all the lands to live in peace.  
37. Every day I increased by [… ge]ese, two ducks and ten pigeons the [former offerings] of  geese, ducks and pigeons.
38. I strove to strengthen the defences of the wall Imgur-Enlil, the great wall of Babylon,
39. and [I completed] the quay of baked brick on the bank of the moat which an earlier king had bu[ilt but not com]pleted its work.  
40. [I …… which did not surround the city] outside, which no earlier king had built, his workforce, the levee [from his land, in/int]o Shuanna.  
41. [… .......................................................................with bitum]en and baked brick I built anew, and [completed] its [work].  
42. […...........................................................] great [doors of cedarwood] with bronze cladding,  
43. [and I installed] all their doors, threshold slabs and door fittings with copper parts.   [….......................] I saw within it an inscription of Ashurbanipal, a king who preceded me;
44. […..................................................................] his … Marduk, the great lord, creator (?) of [ ... ]
45. [….................................................] my [… I presented] as a gift.....................] your pleasure  forever. (From the British Museum)

Hormuzd Rassam

The Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam discovered the Cyrus Cylinder in March 1879 during a lengthy programme of excavations in Mesopotamia carried out for the British Museum.

Cyrus Kar, Founder of Spenta Productions