intemperate opposition. Nestorius bad refused to apply the title " Mother of God " to the Blessed Virgin. The patriarch of Alexandria denounced this heresy to Nestorius himself, to the emperor (the feeble Theodosius II.), and to the empresses, the mother and sister of Theodosius. The altercation grew in bitterness as it advanced, until at length Nestorius was excommunicated and driven from his see in 430. The two opponents met at the oecumenical council summoned at Ephesus in the following year to dispose of the intricate question raised by the use of the terminology in dispute. Each came "accompanied by a rabble of followers Cyril by the bath men and a multitude of women from Egypt, Nestorius by a horde of peasants and some of the lower populace of Constantinople " (Milman s Latin Christ., i. 160). The result was the condem nation of Nestorius, although Cyril also incurred the charge of heresy from the Oriental bishops. Satisfied, however, with the deprivation and exile of his opponent, he returned to Alexandria in triumph as the great champion of the faith, and thence continued, by the " unscrupulous use of all the means at his command," the
theological strife for years.Altogether Cyril presents a character not only unamiable, but singularly deficient in all the graces of the Christian life. He may, as Milman says (Latin Christ., i. 145), be a hero or even a saint to those " who esteem the stern and uncompromising assertion of certain tenets the one para mount Christian virtue ; but, while ambition, intrigue, arrogance, rapacity, and violence are proscribed as unchris tian means barbarity, persecution, bloodshed, as unholy and unevangelic wickednesses, posterity will condemn the orthodox Cyril as one of the worst of heretics against the spirit of the Gospel." Baur, however, says that Cyril must be placed high as a theologi m, and that he sought upon the whole to preserve faithfully the spirit of the Alexandrian school. He has left, besides commentaries, and homilies and letters chiefly relating to the Nestorian controversy, a treatise on the Trinity and the Incarnation, and an apologetic work in defence of Christianity against the attack of the Emperor Julian, also a definite treatise against Nestorius Kara TUV Necrrw/Diou.
CYRIL, a celebrated professor of the ancient law college of Berytus, and one of the founders of the oecumenical school of jurists (T^S cu/cou^eV^s SiSacr/caXot) which preceded the succession of Anastasius to the Eastern empire (491 A.D.), and paved the way for Justinian s legislation. His reputation as a teacher of law was very great ; and from the -fragments of his works which have been preserved it may be inferred that his merit as a teacher consisted in his going direct to the ancient sources of law, and in interpret ing the best writers, such as the Commentary of Ulpian on the Edict and the Responsa Papiniani. He wrote a treatise on definitions (rop.vi]^a TWV Se<iv/Va>v), in which, according to a statement of his contemporary Patricius, the subject of contracts was treated with superior precision and great method, and which has supplied the materials for many important scholia appended to the first and second titles of the eleventh book of the Basilica. He is generally styled " the great Cyril," to distinguish him from a more modern jurist of the same name, who lived after the reign of Justinian, and who compiled an epitome of the Digest.
CYRUS the Elder. Like other national heroes, Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, has been surrounded with an atmosphere of myth. Already in the time of Herodotus (i. 95) four different stories were current among the Persians concerning his origin and his relation to the last king of Media. The one preferred by Herodotus is probably the most legendary of all four ; at any rate it has the same source as the tales told of Perseus or Romulus, or other popular heroes who survived exposure and obscurity to revenge themselves upon the tyrant, and be restored to the royal dignity. Cyrus, Herodotus, states, was the son of Cambyses, a Persian prince, and Mandane, -a daughter of the Median king Astyages, in whose name we may see the Azhi dahdka (" the biting snake,") of Zend mythology, the Ahi or "serpent" of darkness of the Veda, the Zohak of Firdusi s epic ; and of whom Moses of Chorene declared in the 4th century of our era that popular songs still spoke as Ajdahak, the wicked serpent In consequence of a dream Astyages delivered Cyrus to Harpagus to be put to death. Harpagus transferred the order to the king s herdsman Mitradates, whose wife Cyno, " the bitch," persuaded him to bring up the child as his own instead of exposing it, and a still-born infant was sent to Harpagus in its place. At the age of ten Cyrus was discovered and recognized by Astyages, who punished Harpagus by making him eat the flesh of his own son. Cyrus returned to Persia; and some years afterwards Harpagus, who had never forgotten the injury he had suffered, induced him to raise the standard of revolt. Harpagus, appointed commander of the Median forces, went over to the enemy, the Medes were defeated, and Astyages taken prisoner. He was kept in prison till his death, while Cyrus made the Medes subservient to the Persians.
Xenophon in the Cyropcedia, where the life of a model prince rather than of the historical Cyrus is depicted, agrees with Herodotus in making Cyrus the grandson of Astyages, though he calls his father Cambyses an independent king. Cyrus received, we are told, the simple and hardy education of a Persian up to the age of twelve, when he visited the luxurious and effeminate court of Media, and while there gained the admiration of his grandfather by repelling an unprovoked attack of Evil-Merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Astyages was succeeded by his son Cyaxares II., on whose death the Median empire passed peaceably into the hands of Cyrus, now forty years old.
A third account is given by Nicolas of Damascus. According .to this Cyrus was the son of the Persian satrap xitradates, and spent the greater part of his youth in the court of Astyages at Ecbatana. Having escaped by a stratagem and evaded the pursuit of the Medes, he led the Persians into revolt, and attempted to stem the attack of the Median monarch. The Persians, however, were defeated in four great battles, in one of which Atradates was slain, and Pasargadae, the Persian capital, was besieged. Here the tide of fortune turned, the insignia of royalty fell into the hands of Cyrus, and Astyages was overtaken and captured during his flight. The whole of Media at once submitted to the conqueror.
The version of Ctesias is totally unlike either of the preceding three. Like Nicolas of Damascus he denies that Cyrus was in any way related to Astyages, whose daughter Amytis was the wife of Spitaces, or Spitomas, a Mede. Cyrus, after his escape from Media, invaded the country and defeated Astyages, who fled to Ecbatana and was there concealed by Amytis. The Persian CEbaras, however, discovered his hiding-place ; but Astyages was well treated by Cyrus, and died a natural death. Cyrus put Spitaces to death and married Amytis.
The cuneiform inscriptions have proved that Persia could not have been a mere dependency of Media, as Darius declares that his eight ancestors had been kings like him self, while Cyrus calls himself, on a brick from Senkereh, " the son of Cambyses, the powerful king." The Persian conquest of Media, moreover, must have been a slow process. Xenophon (Anah., iii. 4) describes Larissa and
Mespila on the Tigris as strongly-fortified cities which had