The saga of Cyrus the Great continues in this fourth novel in the series. He takes ancient Persia out of obscurity and molds an empire based on honesty, equality and dignity for all men and women. He is forced to confront enemies who wish his downfall. Some wish his death. His few friends work to help him achieve his goals, but at the risk of their own lives. He is attacked by his own family and by foreigners. He uses novel strategies and superior military tactics to vanquish his opponents. He forms and controls the largest empire in the world with a brilliant new political concept.

TRIUMPHS OF THE GREATEST PERSIAN

Cyrus the Great Molds a New PersiaBy C.J. Kirwin

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 C.J. Kirwin
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-9854-1

Chapter One

Queen Mandane lost all hope. She felt dejected about the past, the present and the future. She was helpless to aid her imprisoned father King Astyages who had been the Great King of the Median Empire before her Persians on Cyrus conquered him. Her son's conquest elevated Persia to prominence from its former status as a minor kingdom in her father's empire. She worried over her once glorious father living in isolation doing servile labor on a farm in remote Carmenia. Mandane tried numerous times to get Cyrus to free her father from his plight and improve his humble living conditions. She avoided appeals to have Astyages restored as a king, not even a minor king, hoping it would speed his rescue. Her son ignored her pleadings and her threats. This frustrated and enraged her to tears.

Her despondency drove her to disrespect people she should love and cherish. She lied to some of them and lied about others. Obstinacy, not traditional Persian truth, guided her. She deliberately chose to misunderstand past and present events which caused old friends to shun her. Her willfulness was a family trait she had learned from her Median father years ago, when he had been the extremely self-centered Great King.

She was uncomfortable living alone in the Anshan palace, and none of her personal estates helped elevate her mood. Reasons for her discontent overlapped. The details of her anxieties melded with such intimate complexity that she was unable to separate them and conquer her depression.

When her husband King Cambyses died and her son Cyrus became King of Persia, the new king left the Anshan palace with his wife, children and most of his royal relatives to get away from her. He took the excitement of daily life with him. Her home felt as empty as a vacuous cave echoing the sound of every footfall and every spoken word. Because major pieces of furniture had been moved to Pasargadae by King Cyrus, small trinkets and ornaments like her tea sets, her small bronze camel statue, gold and silver oil lamps sat on small pieces of furniture in a disorganized jumble. Figures of other animals and humans that once stood as proud decorations on large chests and tables were now crammed on wall hung shelves, and shoved into corners in every room. He had taken wardrobes, the long dining table and its chairs, blanket chests and numerous waist high cabinets used to store bed coverings and other functional household items.

Her son moved out of the Anshan palace accusing her of causing trouble within his family. It was true. She was jealous of his wife Queen Cassandane, and Mandane used insults and innuendos to aggravate the younger new queen. Mandane also lost her dominance over the andarun, the female household in the palace where a queen ruled without question. Her daughter-in-law Cassandane, as the new queen, inherited the senior position in the andarun by tradition. This led to mutual feelings of resentment between the two women. Queen Mandane enjoyed starting arguments with her daughter-in-law. When they lived in the same palace, she was free with her love for her grandchildren, but she had no love for Cassandane and resented her for having so many babies. Cyrus was the only child Mandane ever conceived. She never understood why she and King Cambyses were unsuccessful in having more children, and that had always vexed her.

King Cyrus moved his family east to a new city her deceased husband King Cambyses had started and named Pasargadae. The name meant 'the camp of the Persians.' Cambyses never intended anyone except his own countrymen to live there even though he had promised it to his wife's Median father, King Astyages. Although Queen Mandane's son lived in Pasargadae, he still referred to himself as Cyrus the King of Anshan because he cherished the old capital's ancestral foundation. Mandane knew it was her son's way of exalting his Persian heritage over her family's Median origin. She thought his sentiment was laughable affectation. She often tried to nudge his ego to get him to call himself the King of Kings because her father relished that title, but Cyrus refused. She had been told Cyrus officially struck the title King of Kings from his royal names, because he considered himself the king of countries more than just a ruler of kings. The young king based his laws on ethics and morality not on the submission of men to power. His new laws deviated from the frivolous uncertainty his grandfather used with his desperate need to be recognized as all powerful. Astyages frequently stated that he was so magnificent because he ruled kings! Queen Mandane liked to aggravate her son and entertained herself by sending King Cyrus messages using the King of Kings title.

As the mother of the king, and by longstanding Persian tradition, Queen Mandane was owed special favors and authority throughout the land, yet she was forbidden to visit the partially completed palace the family occupied in Pasargadae. The banning was a grievous humiliation, and it infuriated her. Never having seen that distant structure, all she had was stories describing the new palace and the new city beginning to form around the royal property. These portrayals took more bits of joy from her life. She did not want to believe her acquaintances who told her how more elaborate, large, and elegant the living spaces were in Pasargadae than the rooms in which she and her husband Cambyses had celebrated their marriage happiness in the Anshan palace. She did receive both good and bad descriptions about conveniences and discomforts in Cassandane's living accommodations in Pasargadae because that palace was still under construction. She hoped the less desirable conditions dominated and appalled Queen Cassandane.

Queen Mandane could not get over the feeling that her son and the entire nation had forsaken her. She imagined her son issuing decrees forbidding peasants or merchants to do business with her. She let these made-up fantasies justify her anger and moodiness. She did not listen to her royal companions who advised her to seek mental counseling from the medical magi priests and refused to consult those priests. She ignored the Chief Magus, too, when he tried to ease her distress. She knew that special privileges and honors should be available to her as the Mother Queen and she resented her isolation from such pleasures. She had the right to influence the business of the nation in her son's court, and it hurt her that Cyrus kept her from governmental decision making and banquets with international emissaries and potentates. These were national activities she had every right to attend as his mother. Several times emissaries from foreign lands made the mistake of coming to Anshan to see King Cyrus. Mandane met them instead and negotiated unauthorized treaties and contracts she knew conflicted with her son's laws. Because her political isolation from legitimate international affairs felt like prison, she devised carefully contrived political confusion to amuse herself.

When she was growing up in her father's Ecbatana capital in Media, she had the freedom of an informal education in an empire which gained her maturity and a sophisticated understanding of imperial issues that exceeded the experience of any Persian prince. After she married King Cambyses, she had been left to govern Persia every time her husband left his Anshan capital. He had always trusted her abilities, but her...