Cyrus the great and the greeks of Asia minor: The diplomatic contacts

Abstract

© Serials Publications.The actuality of this paper is due to the research of the diplomatic relations between West and East, which is currying out in the modern scholarship. The aim of the paper is to investigate the diplomatic relations between the Persian King Cyrus the Great and the Greeks. The paper is built up on the comparative analysis of the Greek narrative sources that enabled us to give a detailed consideration of the relations between Cyrus and the Greeks. The novelty is that no other works in the literature that consider this subject specially. The main problem of this paper is to clarify how Cyrus the Great did achieve his objectives in the foreign policy by means of a diplomacy, The analysis of the sources shows that Cyrus the Great used diplomacy only to threat to the Greeks. It is argued that this Persian King was deprived of any diplomatic flexibility. It is concluded that he preferred to discuss all the matters with the Greeks relying only to the military pressure. The results of this paper may be used for the investigation of the history of international relations and diplomacy, the history of the Persian Empire and Ancient Greece.