in modern apologetics, but the 1st century CE Jewish historian Josephus, followed later by the early Christian Church Father Jerome, harmonised Daniel with the historical sources by claiming that Darius the Mede was a son of Astyages. "Cyaxares II". The Greek writer Xenophon tells of a Median king called Cyaxares who was the son of Astyages; Xenophon is not generally given credence by historians, and he does not, in any case, say that this alleged Cyaxares ruled Babylon. Cyrus. This argument hinges on a reinterpretation of Daniel 6:28, "Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius, and the reign of Cyrus the Persian", to read "Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius, even the reign of Cyrus the Persian", making them the same individual. William Shea, a conservative scholar, comments that it would be strange to refer to Cyrus the Persian, son of Cambyses I, as Darius the Mede, son of Ahasuerus, and strange also to refer to the same king as Cyrus in some passages and Darius in others. Cambyses II. Cambyses was Cyrus' son and his successor as emperor. The Babylonian records indicate that Cyrus installed him as regent in Babylon, but he was not a Mede, his father was not Ahasuerus, and he was probably not sixty-two years old. Gubaru (or Ugbaru, called Gobryas in Greek sources) was the general who took Babylon for Cyrus. He was previously the Babylonian governor of Gutium (an area closely associated with Media in Babylonian sources) before switching sides to the Persians, and Cyrus seems to have given him administrative responsibility for Babylon after its capture, but he never held the title "King of Babylon" and this argument cannot account for the name "Darius" in Daniel 6. References Citations Bibliography Babylonian kings Book of Daniel Cyrus the Great Hebrew Bible words and phrases Jewish mythology Jewish Babylonian history Legendary rulers Median people Monarchs of the Hebrew Bible Mythological kings Pseudohistory