Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History / The Battle of Cunaxa: Artaxerxes II vs Cyrus the Younger
Transcript
- Lucas: So far in this series, we've talked a lot about the Achaemenid Empire at its peak — Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes — but today we're going to look at a moment when the empire really started to fray. A civil war between two brothers. Luna: Oh, this sounds juicy. Which brothers? Lucas: Artaxerxes II, the reigning King of Kings, and his younger brother Cyrus the Younger. This is 401 BCE, about fifty years after Xerxes, and the empire is still vast — stretching from India to the Aegean. But the royal family is anything but united. Lucas: Cyrus the Younger was no ordinary prince. He was charismatic, ambitious, and deeply resentful of his older brother. When their father Darius II died, Artaxerxes took the throne, but Cyrus immediately began plotting. He had been the satrap of Lydia and the commander of all Persian forces in Anatolia, so he had both wealth and military experience. Luna: So he had the resources to raise an army? Lucas: Exactly. And he did it in secret. He gathered a massive force, but the core of his army was something unusual: about 13,000 Greek mercenaries — hoplites and peltasts. These were hardened veterans from the Peloponnesian War, which had just ended in Greece. Many of them were out of work and looking for pay. Lucas: The Greeks didn't know they were marching against the Great King. Cyrus told them he was putting down a rebellion in the satrapy of Pisidia. It was a lie, but a useful one. They marched east from Sardis, through Anatolia and into Syria, and it wasn't until they reached the Euphrates that the Greek commanders realized they were headed for Babylon. Luna: Wait — they just kept marching without asking where they were going? Lucas: That's the thing: Cyrus paid them extremely well, and the Greek mercenary leaders, like the Spartan general Clearchus, were happy to follow the money. But when the truth came out, there was a mutiny. Cyrus had to double their pay to keep them going. And it worked — the promise of gold outweighed their caution. Lucas: Meanwhile, Artaxerxes was not idle. He assembled a massive army of his own, drawing troops from across the empire. Our main source for this battle is Xenophon, a Greek soldier who was there, and later wrote the Anabasis. He says Artaxerxes' army numbered around 100,000 men, though modern estimates are lower. Still, it was a huge force, with cavalry, chariots, and archers. Luna: So the two armies met at Cunaxa? Lucas: Right. Cunaxa was a village about 70 kilometers north of Babylon, on the left bank of the Euphrates. It was September 3, 401 BCE. Cyrus deployed his army with the Greek mercenaries on the right wing, closest to the river, and his Persian troops on the left. Artaxerxes placed his best troops — the elite Immortals — opposite the Greek line. Lucas: The battle started with the Greek phalanx advancing. The Greeks were heavily armored and trained in close combat, while the Persian infantry was lighter. The Greeks smashed into the Persian left wing, and the Persians broke and ran. It was a rout on that part of the field. But then Cyrus made a bold — and fatal — decision. Luna: What did he do? Lucas: He saw his brother Artaxerxes in the center, surrounded by his guard. Cyrus decided to lead a direct charge against the King of Kings, with a small bodyguard of about 600 cavalry. He wanted to end the war in one stroke. He charged, and he actually reached Artaxerxes — he wounded him with a javelin. But then he was surrounded and killed. Lucas: Xenophon tells us that Cyrus was struck by a javelin under the eye, and that was it. The rebel prince was dead. And just like that, the rebellion collapsed. The Persian troops on Cyrus's left fled or surrendered. But the Greeks on the right — they didn't know Cyrus was dead. They had won their part of the battle and were waiting for orders. Luna: So they were stranded in the middle of enemy territory? Lucas: Exactly. When they realized Cyrus was dead, they were in a terrible position. They were deep in Mesopotamia, hundreds of miles from the sea, surrounded by a victorious Persian army. The Persian general Tissaphernes offered them a truce, but then he betrayed them — he lured the Greek commanders to a parley and executed them. Lucas: But the Greek soldiers didn't give up. They elected new leaders, including Xenophon himself, and fought their way north through hostile territory — the mountains of Kurdistan and Armenia — until they finally reached the Black Sea. That march became the subject of Xenophon's book, the Anabasis, one of the greatest adventure stories of the ancient world. Luna: So it's a story of survival against all odds. Lucas: It is. But the consequences for the Achaemenid Empire were also huge. Artaxerxes II was now secure on the throne, but his victory came at a cost. The empire had been weakened by the civil war. The Greek mercenaries had shown that the Persian army, for all its numbers, couldn't stand up to a determined Greek phalanx. That lesson would not be lost on future Greek invaders. Lucas: Artaxerxes II reigned for another 45 years, but his rule was marked by revolts in the satrapies and growing interference from Greece. The battle of Cunaxa is a turning point — the beginning of the end for the Achaemenid Empire, even though it wouldn't fall for another 70 years. Luna: And all because two brothers couldn't share power. Lucas: Right. And because one of them had the audacity to charge straight at his brother. It's a classic story of ambition, betrayal, and the brutal logic of ancient warfare. Next time, we'll talk about how the Greeks used that lesson to launch their own campaigns into Persia.