Cyrus I

Cyrus I ruled Anshan — a kingdom in Persia — from roughly 600 to 580 BC, though some sources push his reign earlier, from around 652 to 600 BC. Known as Kuruš in Old Persian and Kȳros to the Greeks, he left little direct mark on history. His significance rests almost entirely on lineage: he was the grandfather of Cyrus II, later called Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. The elder Cyrus governed a regional power that his descendants would transform into something far larger.