Cyrus Magnus Persa

Amici,

Cyrus the Great, a pagan Persian monarch who lived from about 600 to 530 BC, ruled over Persia (modern day Iran), Babylon (modern day Iraq), Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and the rest of the Near East in the mid-sixth century before Christ was born. The Jewish prophet Isaiah says this about him in Sacred Scripture (44:28-45:7):

[The Lord] says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfil all my purpose’;saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and ungird the loins of kings,
to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed:
“I will go before you
and level the mountains,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut asunder the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I gird you, though you do not know me,
that men may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe,
I am the Lord, who do all these things.