How King Cyrus of Persia inspired Thomas Jefferson (Essay Sample)

Name Course Date How King Cyrus of Persia inspired Thomas Jefferson The key historical figures discussed by Joneidi, Khashayar (2013, 11) are the great King Cyrus of the Persian Empire and Thomas Jefferson the third president of the United States of America. The two were connected in that they both applied the ruling model of accommodating diversity of cultures and allowing freedom of worship in their ruler ship. This model of ruling was originally observed when King Cyrus conquered the Babylonian dynasty and decided to release the captives and allow them to go back to their homes. At that time, he also allowed for the entire empire that was now composed of different tribes, nations and cultures to worship their own gods freely. Similarly, when Jefferson read what Xenophon wrote about King Cyrus of Persia and how he managed to successfuly rule a mix of cultures, and religions building up on “tolerance” he was inspired to take up the same ruling model and adopt it in the United states and possibly rule different states on the merit of freedom of worship as long as no religion was considered superior to the other (Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.) At his victory in capturing Babylon king Cyrus ordered that a clay cylinder be made and on the cylinder, inscriptions were made documenting the achievements of the king and stating the freedom “right” he had enforced in his empire that facilitated diversity. The inscriptions of this cylinder would later regulate the governing models of the modern Western democracies which were and still are trying to reconcile variou...