Cyaxares II

Cyaxares II was said to be a king of the Medes whose reign is described only by the Greek historian Xenophon. However, the fact that this king is not mentioned at all in the histories of Herodotus or Ctesias has caused many scholars to debate whether such a king ever actually existed.

According to Xenophon's Cyropaedia, Cyaxares II followed king Astyages to the throne of the Mede Empire, and was also brother of Mandane, Cyrus the Great's wife. He describes the Persian Cyrus as cooperating with Cyaxares in order to conquer Babylon in 539 BC. However Cyaxares was by then an old man, and because Cyrus was in command of the campaign, the army came to regard Cyrus as king. Cyrus thus received not only the king's daughter, but his father in law's kingdom, as dowry, and the aged Cyaxares became Cyrus' viceroy in Babylonia for two years until his death, when Cyrus seized that kingdom as well.