While the biblical version proclaims Cyrus a messianic figure, reality probably falls closer in line with the characterization of a ruler intent on appeasing a people who were simply a nuisance in Babylon and whose presence in Jerusalem as allies to the Persian throne was of great value in Cyrus' attempt to curb the threat posed by the advance of the Greeks.
In addition to Cyrus' role in the characterization of the period, prophets such a Ezekiel played a prominent role in describing a period for which little archaeological evidence remains. Drawing upon the same themes within a sort of cognitive dissonance in the exilic period, Ezekiel talked about a dream in which a mobile reincarnation of the Ark of the Covenant appeared to him. This idea of a mobile god, conceived perhaps in an attempt to rationalize the destruction of the Solomonic temple, was integral in the movement from early biblical Judaism to the modern religion of today. In addition to the birth of the 2nd Temple, this growth of heavenly mobility played a key role in making the Persian period one of great significance in the development of Jerusalem, the Holy Land, and the Judaic religion as a whole.
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