I've been raking my brain for the past few days thinking of contemparies in terms of military greatness as well as other factors (excluding economic prosperity) in history that can match Cyrus II's accomplishments.

My list goes as -

...No one except Khosrow Parviz and Khosrow Anushurivan. I really can't think of anyone who is considered so honored by the world and at the same time be one of the greatest warriors/generals of all time.

Darius I ("The Great") was the best Persian king of all time!

Everyone in America knows Cyrus and the Persians quiet well. So you shouldn't speak when you know nothing of the rest of the world.

"Everyone in America?" Don't accuse me of making ludicrous assumptions...

This is silly. Do you seriously believe Kosrov X is "honoured" - or even known - in most of the world? I can with large safety-margin say that the vast majority of Europeans have never heard of either of those two. If you want to believe, please do, but don't reply since I'm retreating now.

Why don't you try go out in the street there in the UK and ask the question. I'll do the same here, with all the exchange students around, and we'll see the result. Edit: nah, don't bother, it's such a silly issue to waste time on.

I think the lack of historical knowledge is something else, I'm sure that many peoples in Iran also even don't know that Cyrus the Great was an Achaemenid king! Some days ago my friend who is a software engineer asked me "Was Cyrus a Muslim?"

If american don't know Cyrus the Great but they at least know one of these Cyruses:

Cyrus Vance
in full CYRUS ROBERTS VANCE, American lawyer and public official who was secretary of state from 1977 to 1980 during the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

Cyrus S. Eaton
in full CYRUS STEPHEN EATON, U.S.-Canadian industrialist and philanthropist, founder of the Republic Steel Corporation (1930).

Cyrus Edwin Dallin
American sculptor, best known for equestrian portraits of American Indians.

Cyrus James Moore
United States Marine WW-II

Cyrus Hall McCormick
American industrialist and inventor who is generally credited with the development (from 1831) of the mechanical reaper.

Cyrus Field
U.S. financier noted for the success of the first transatlantic cable. He was the younger brother of the law reformer David Dudley Field and of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field.

Cyrus A. Bartol
in full CYRUS AUGUSTUS BARTOL, was a Unitarian minister, author, and member of the Transcendental Club.

Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis
Publisher who established a journalistic empire in Philadelphia.

Cyrus Cassells
American Poet who is the recipient of a 1995 Pushcart Prize, the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poets Award, and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cyrus Read Teed
Also known as Koresh, proclaimed himself to be the "seventh messenger of God,"24 adopted Koresh as his new surname, and set up religious communes, first in Illinois and then in Florida.

Cyrus Adler
scholar, educator, editor, and Conservative Jewish leader who had great influence on American Jewish life in his time.

You speak the truth, though even this Cyrus is rather unknown.  To say otherwise would be to delude yourself.

Ghengis Khan and Kublai Khan.

Temujin (who would gain the title of Ghengis Khan)was not born into greatness. Though the son of a chief, his father was assassinated, his family cast out. He was forced to scrounge for berries and rodents to survive. The boy with knees and hands to the dirt would become the man who would bring into creation the largest land empire ever known in history (conquoring even the mighty Persian and Chinese Empires)

Ghengis Khan, like all Mongols, was religiously tolerant. He was also an equal oppertunity employer who cared not for race (only loyalty).

Kublia ran a welfare system for people who could not work to live (such as families who have lost sons/husbands/fathers). Plus ruling the world's largest Empire.

Allah oo akbar...God is greater than Cyrus the Great!

On a serious note, its hard to measure the greatness of people. The things that people do have different meanings and outcomes for different people. Some would argue being a soldier is more noble because certain people would be afraid to go out into battle and risk their hides. Some would argue being a leader is more noble because some people are afraid to make decisions that impact so many people. The people that have done both, are afraid to be average. I think that is the first criteria and one of the characteristics of being great.

The second criteria is how effectively they did those two things. Great soldiers and generals arent always great leaders, and great leaders arent always great generals. Those who do both very well are great.

The third and most important criteria is WHY they choose to do these things. If they want fame and fortune for themselves, they are no more noble than the common man. If they do it for the greater good of their people, i.e. helping their country out in a time of dismay, sacrificing themselves, then they are great. If they do it simply to conquer more lands and win their place in history, they are no different than any of us here in the forum. Its difficult situations and circumstances that call on great people.

But, a lot of the time great talent outweighs great intentions.

Keep thinking, maybe you will find the Secret of Universe

He never got the title "Genghis Khan" (such a title doesn't exist), I think you mean Chinggis Kha'an (I just hate historicially inaccurate names).

There were no "Persian" and "Chinese" empires during Chinggis Kha'an's life. Transoxiana, Afghanistan and most of Iran was ruled by the Kh�rezm-Sh�h Dynasty which was ruled by a Turkoman elite (and had an army consisted largely of Q�pchaqs and Qa�l�s). OTOH, China was divided between three states: Southern Song, Jin and Xixia. Chinggis Kha'an defeated and vassalised the Xixia, defeated the Jin (but never conquered it totally), later ordered the total destruction of Xixia near his death but never fought the Song (the Mongols were allied with the Song before the final destruction of Jin).

All these 3 states of central plains are empires.

Benjamin Franklin with a great mind... some joke. He outrightly justified slavery and condemned Africans as lower speicies whose fate was to be enslaved.

Thomas Payne was the brain behind the idea of American Independence: 1/5 of the Americans read his Common Sense; otherwise the war might have failed miserably.

By the way, he was not just a "man of his times". Note that there were people like John Adams who wanted to free slaves and yet was a president. Even Washington freed all his slaves after his death. France freed all of her slaves of West Indies in 1793 and gave all races rights to vote - later suppressed by Napoleon.