_Cyrus_ lived seventy years, according to _Cicero_, and Reigned nine years over _Babylon_, according to _Ptolemy_'s Canon, and therefore was 61 years old at the taking of _Babylon_; at which time _Darius_ the _Mede_ was 62 years old, according to _Daniel_: and therefore _Darius_ was two Generations younger than _Astyages_, the grandfather of _Cyrus_: for _Astyages_, according to both [401] _Herodotus_ and _Xenophon_, gave his daughter _Mandane_ to _Cambyses_ a Prince of _Persia_, and by them became the grandfather of _Cyrus_; and _Cyaxeres_ was the son of _Astyages_, according [402] to _Xenophon_, and gave his Daughter to _Cyrus_. This daughter, [403] saith _Xenophon_, was reported to be very handsome, and used to play with _Cyrus_ when they were both children, and to say that she would marry him: and therefore they were much of the same age. _Xenophon_ saith that _Cyrus_ married her after the taking of _Babylon_; but she was then an old woman: it's more probable that he married her while she was young and handsome, and he a young man; and that because he was the brother-in-law of _Darius_ the King, he led the armies of the Kingdom until he revolted: so then _Astyages_, _Cyaxeres_ and _Darius_ Reigned successively over the _Medes_; and _Cyrus_ was the grandson of _Astyages_, and married the sister of _Darius_, and succeeded him in the Throne.
_Herodotus_ therefore [404] hath inverted the order of the Kings _Astyages_ and _Cyaxeres_, making _Cyaxeres_ to be the son and successor of _Phraortes_, and the father and predecessor of _Astyages_ the father of _Mandane_, and grandfather of _Cyrus_, and telling us, that this _Astyages_ married _Ariene_ the daughter of _Alyattes_ King of _Lydia_, and was at length taken prisoner and deprived of his dominion by _Cyrus_: and _Pausanias_ hath copied after _Herodotus_, in telling us that _Astyages_ the son of _Cyaxeres_ Reigned in _Media_ in the days of _Alyattes_ King of _Lydia_. _Cyaxeres_ had a son who married _Ariene_ the daughter of _Alyattes_; but this son was not the father of _Mandane_, and grandfather of _Cyrus_, but of the same age with _Cyrus_: and his true name is preserved in the name of the _Darics_, which upon the conquest of _Croesus_ by the conduct of his General _Cyrus_, he coyned out of the gold and silver of the conquered _Lydians_: his name was therefore _Darius_, as he is called by _Daniel_; for _Daniel_ tells us, that this _Darius_ was a _Mede_, and that his father's name was _Assuerus_, that is _Axeres_ or _Cyaxeres_, as above: considering therefore that _Cyaxeres_ Reigned long, and that no author mentions more Kings of _Media_ than one called _Astyages_, and that _Æschylus_ who lived in those days knew but of two great Monarchs of _Media_ and _Persia_, the father and the son, older than _Cyrus_; it seems to me that _Astyages_, the father of _Mandane_ and grandfather of _Cyrus_, was the father and predecessor of _Cyaxeres_; and that the son and successor of _Cyaxeres_ was called _Darius_. _Cyaxeres_, [405] according to _Herodotus_, Reigned 40 years, and his successor 35, and _Cyrus_, according to _Xenophon_, seven: _Cyrus_ died _Anno Nabonass._ 219, according to the Canon, and therefore _Cyaxeres_ died _Anno Nabonass._ 177, and began his Reign _Anno Nabonass._ 137, and his father _Astyages_ Reigned 26 years, beginning his Reign at the death of _Phraortes_, who was slain by the _Assyrians_, _Anno Nabonass._ 111, as above.