 Diary of Cambyses II
Son of Cyrus
the Great
June 15, 2004
iranian.com
I hope life is treating you well. I attach a
short story that my niece, Nyusha
Samiei,
who is 12 and lives in Vancouver, Canada, wrote for an English
essay. The essay was supposed to be loosely based on historical
facts.
Nyusha goes to a French school. -- Hossein Samiei
"Scroll of Cambyses II, son of King Cyrus the
Great, ruler of Persia, the greatest empire in the world." These
are the words written on the top of this scroll, given to me by
my dearest mother. On the back, I inscribed: "The Greeks call
my father Cyrus the Great, the Persians call him Kourosh-eh Bozorg,
my mother calls him dear husband, but I know him only as father."
The 16th day of the month of Atash, in the 3rd year
of my father's rule, 71 years after our prophet Zoroaster was born
We are now on our way to Babylonia. In his quest
to expand his empire, my father has also decided to free the Babylonians
from
their despotic rulers and put them
under his own just rule.
Our empire is spread out from the Halys River to
the eastern border of Lydia. Egypt, Lydia and Sparta, a city in
Greece, are all in the power of my father.
My father may seem like a greedy man, but truly he is not. He is the most fair
and just man I know. The Persians admire him so and he treats them very well.
He has a clever system of currency, a wonderful language, a magnificent post
service and rules (a charter of human rights as he calls it) that everyone
must obey, for we are all equal and slaves, we have not heard such
a thing. The 17th
night of the month of Atash
Our advanced troops have returned and they have reported that the Babylonians
are a day's walk ahead of us where they have taken their position to defend.
The 19th day of the month of Atash
I am writing this in the midst of war. We reached the Babylonian
army, yesterday at midday. My father, his adviser Aryash and
I all stand upon a hill, so my father
can oversee his troops and be able to command them. The 26th day of the month of Atash
We have defeated the Babylonians! We are lucky for we lost few
men in this great battle. We are now on our way to the great
city of Nineveh, which is the capital
of Babylonia, to explore the land and free the people.
The 27th day of the month of Atash
I am astonished by our discoveries! We arrived in the city of Nineveh
and we have freed all the Babylonians, but there is something
awful we have just discovered!
The tower of the Babylonian king was the last place we visited in the city of
Nineveh. When inside, our first destination was the dungeon. We entered and we
heard dreadful cries and screams of sadness and despair. Then we noticed the
horrible truth. In cells, behind bars were many poor, pitiful and sick-looking
men, women and children. By the language they spoke, I noticed that they were
Jews. "We are returning tomorrow!" my father announced. He is determined
to do something about it. The 28th night of the month of Atash
I am absolutely delighted by the events of this morning! My father,
Aryash, his troops and I revisited the dungeon. My father ordered
all the Jews who had been
enslaved by the Babylonians to be free people. The expression on their face
brought tears to my eyes. My father may be a strict Zoroastrian
but he is still tolerant
of all religions. Then out of the crowd of joyful Jews, Daniel, a man the Jews
called prophet, came forth. He took a scroll and showed it to my father. On
it was written a prophecy from God, of 200 years ago, that
mentioned that a man
named Cyrus would free the Jews. My father was dumbfounded!  I later on, heard
from Aryash that there were several other prophecies that came true after my
father freed the Jews. He also kindly allowed the Jews to rebuild their Temple
of Solomon that was destroyed by the Babylonians. He declared that he would
like a few of his best architects to go along and help coordinate
the rebuilding of
the temple. The Jews were very happy by this news, for their temple was quite
important to them. And in the crowd the Jews started to whisper "He is a
holy man..." So as this wonderful day comes to an end I add on the back
of this scroll, "The Jews call my father holy man."
Sources
-- Cyrus Charter
-- Cyrus biography
--
The Silent Centuries
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Diary of Cambyses II
