There is a meme out there that Cyrus and the Persians didn’t hold slaves. This is promoted by modern Iranian nationalists to make their ancestors look good, by modern standards.
It is of course nonsense, as all actual historians know. In fact, all Persians considered themselves the slaves of the King of Kings, and were proud of it. There were also a great many actual slaves in their empire, of the State, the King and individuals.
A very great deal of the antagonism between the Persians and Greeks was based on the refusal of the Greeks to accept becoming slaves of the King by submitting to his rule. This is blindingly obvious in Herodotus, Plutarch, etc. Herodotus has vivid description of the “netting” slave raids of the Persians. The army would join hands and march across an entire Greek island to make sure none of the inhabitants were able to escape them.
(Not that that the Greeks had anything against the institution of slavery, as such. They just objected to having it applied to them.)
“It is of course nonsense, as all actual historians know. In fact, all Persians considered themselves the slaves of the King of Kings, and were proud of it.”
I’d be interested in a couple of independent links (not based on or related to Herodotus description).