(Καμβύσης).
1. The father of Cyrus the Great, according to Herodotus and Xenophon, the former of whom tells us (1.107), that Astyages, being terrified by a dream, refrained from marrying his daughter Mandane to a Mede, and gave her to Cambyses, a Persian of noble blood, but of an unambitious temper. (Comp. Just. 1.4.) The father of Cambyses is also called 'Cyrus' by Herodotus (1.111). In so rhetorical a passage as the speech of Xerxes (Hdt. 7.11) we must not look for exact accuracy in the genealogy. Xenophon (Xen. Cyrop. 1.2) calls Cambyses the king of Persia, and he afterwards speaks of him (Cyrop. 8.5) as still reigning after the capture of Babylon, B. C. 538. But we cannot of course rest much on the statements in a romance. The account of Ctesias differs from the above. [ASTYAGES.]