The Strong Willed Queen Tomyris of the Massagetea

Cyrus sent a messenger to Queen Torresliche and told her that she wanted to get married but she refused because she said "She is much older than love" (Abbott, 71). She is very smart. I know that Cyrus is not for beauty, not for marrying her for her land. The Kingdom of Massagetea is in the northern part of Persia and Cyrus hopes these lands will become part of the Persian Empire (Herodod, I. 205). When Cyrus heard that his plan did not occur as expected, he was more determined to build a bridge across the Alax River to fight her.

After Cyrus broke Tomyris' son Spargapises, the Queen Tomyris of the tower led the attack. The Persian army was seriously injured including Cyrus himself. At the end of the fight Tomyris ordered to find the corpse of Cyrus and then soaked his head in the blood to revenge his son's death with his hands. He was buried in Pasargadae and his grave is still there today. Both Strabo and Arrian explained his grave according to a witness report from Alexander the Great. This city is currently in ruins, but part of the tomb has been repaired to cope with the deterioration of nature over many years, so the grave of Cyrus the Great remains almost intact.

Just like his birth and youth, people know little about Cyrus's life in the past nine years. Herodotus insisted that Cyrus died in the fight against nomadic Karatae living in Isaacs. The massage Queen Tomyris is said to have been the first person of Cyrus in the retribution of his son's death. While Ctesias claimed that Cyrus died to suppress the resistance of another nomadic Derbices from Central Asia, Berossus claimed that Cyrus died in the fight against Dahae Nomads. Cyrus may actually die in Central Asia, but in the meantime he will try to expand his influence on the region. As you can see from Babylonian letters, Cyrus died before December 530 BC. He was buried in the tomb of Pasargadae with his cloaks, weapons, and jewels. After his death, Cyrus was replaced by his son, Cambisius II.

The Renaissance Italians generally did not share this kind of gentle silence views. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio explained Cyrus as a terrible ruler who was killed and defeated by Queen Tomyris (one of the stories that Cyrus died in Herodotus). Although Machiavelli sometimes provides information about Cyrus that is compatible with Herodotus' account (P 6 and 26; AW 6.218), he seems to like the imaginary version of Xenophon very much (eg: As of)