Why was he suddenly able to conquer so much land? Was he a particularly

image.jpg was indeed a particularly good general, yes.

>>2511836
There's a cool little function that lets you look up inages, friend

>>2511821

A lot of it was inherited more as a coup than a direct military conquest. The Persians moved in and took over as the dominant power in what was previously a Median empire, which itself was mostly taken more or less intact from the Assyrian empire.

And having that kind of power base without the endemic revolts that the previous two "dynasties" had gave him a lot to work with.

>>2511836

It's a picture of Cyrus.

>>2511860
But why was his war against Lydia so successful? Did the medians just never try to conquer them or was it because astyages was just a terrible ruler?

>>2511887

The historical record of the period is so thin, it's almost impossible to say. We don't even know for sure when the conquest of Lydia happened. We know almost nothing of the Lydian economy, population, military efficiency, social organization, or anything else. Sadly, it will probably be a big ass question mark more or less forever.

>>2511908
This.

Also, Median empire was a lot less centralized than the Persian one. It was more like a confederation of the six tribes and various cities within it.
Cyrus centralized it and so probably had an easier time conquering shit.

>>2511821
Part of it was no doubt that the people he was fighting were weakened because of infighting and petty squabbles.