Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History / The Battle of Cunaxa: Cyrus the Younger vs Artaxerxes II
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Achaemenid empire at its height — the roads, the currency, the court at Persepolis. But today I want to look at a moment when that empire nearly tore itself apart from the inside: the civil war between two brothers, Artaxerxes II and Cyrus the Younger, and the battle that decided their fate at a place called Cunaxa. Luna: Cunaxa — that's the battle where the Ten Thousand Greeks fought, right? Lucas: Exactly. But the battle itself is only part of the story. To understand it, we have to go back to the end of the Peloponnesian War. Cyrus the Younger was the younger son of Darius II, and when Darius died in 404 BCE, the throne went to his eldest, Artaxerxes II. Now Cyrus was no ordinary prince — he had been the satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, and during the Peloponnesian War he had been a key ally of Sparta, providing money and ships to help them beat Athens. Lucas: When Artaxerxes took the throne, he immediately faced a rebellion from his own brother. Cyrus had been accused of plotting to assassinate him — or so Artaxerxes claimed — and only intervention from their mother, Parysatis, saved Cyrus from execution. But Cyrus was sent back to his satrapy in disgrace, and that's when he began planning his own bid for power. Luna: Parysatis — she was the queen mother, and she clearly favored Cyrus. Lucas: She did. She was a formidable figure in her own right, and her support was crucial. Cyrus spent the next few years building an army in secret. He couldn't openly recruit Persians, because that would tip off his brother. So he turned to the one source of military manpower that was abundant and, to some extent, politically neutral: Greek mercenaries. And the timing was perfect. The Peloponnesian War had just ended, leaving thousands of experienced soldiers out of work. Luna: So he hired an army of Greeks to fight other Persians. Lucas: Yes, and he was careful to disguise his real intention. He told the Greeks they were being hired to campaign against the Pisidians, a rebellious tribe in southern Anatolia. But as they marched east from Sardis, it became clear they were heading into the heart of the empire. The Greek commander Clearchus, a Spartan exile, knew something was up, but he kept the men in line. Lucas: By the time they reached the Euphrates, there was no turning back. Cyrus's army numbered about 100,000, including the famous Ten Thousand Greek hoplites. Artaxerxes, meanwhile, raised a massive force — some ancient sources say 900,000, though that's almost certainly exaggerated. The two armies met near the village of Cunaxa, about 60 kilometers north of Babylon, in September 401 BCE. Luna: What was the battlefield like? Lucas: Flat, open plain — perfect for the kind of set-piece battle the Greeks were trained for. The Greeks were on the right wing, near the Euphrates. Cyrus placed them there specifically because he knew they'd be facing the toughest opposition: the elite Persian troops under Artaxerxes himself. The plan was for the Greeks to smash through their opponents, then wheel around to hit the king's center. Lucas: And it almost worked. The Greek hoplites advanced in their phalanx, and the Persian left wing simply broke. They didn't even wait to fight — they just ran. But then Cyrus made a fatal mistake. He saw his brother in the center of the Persian line, and he decided to lead a cavalry charge straight at him. He actually wounded Artaxerxes with a javelin — but in the chaos, Cyrus himself was killed. Luna: So the battle was won, but the leader was dead. Lucas: Exactly. When the Greeks heard that Cyrus had fallen, they didn't know what to do. They had won their part of the battle decisively, but their employer was gone. And now they were stranded deep in enemy territory, surrounded by a still-hostile Persian army that vastly outnumbered them. That's when the real story begins — the retreat of the Ten Thousand. Lucas: But before we get into that — and I know you're curious about it — I want to pause and mention something. This show, like every episode in this series, is completely ad-free. We deliberately don't run advertisements because we think the history speaks for itself, and we don't want to interrupt your listening experience with commercials. If you appreciate that approach and want to support it, there's a way to do that: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple, voluntary way to keep the show going. And now, back to the Ten Thousand. Luna: Yeah, it's a good model. So what happened to those Greek mercenaries after Cyrus died? Lucas: They were in a terrible position. The Persian satrap Tissaphernes — who had been a rival of Cyrus for years — invited the Greek generals to a parley under a flag of truce. Clearchus and four other commanders went, and they were seized and executed. That left the Greeks leaderless, but instead of surrendering, they elected new commanders — one of them was Xenophon, an Athenian who wasn't even a soldier at the start. He became the historian of the retreat. Luna: Xenophon's Anabasis — that's his account of the march. Lucas: Right. And it's one of the great adventure stories of the ancient world. The Ten Thousand — actually they were closer to 10,000 to begin with, but after losses maybe 8,000 — marched north through Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Armenia, fighting off attacks from Persians, Kurds, and Armenians, enduring freezing winters and starvation. They finally reached the Black Sea at a Greek colony called Trapezus, modern Trabzon. When they saw the sea, they shouted 'Thalatta! Thalatta!' — 'The sea! The sea!' — because they knew they were safe. Luna: That must have been an incredible moment. Lucas: It's one of the most famous scenes in all of Greek literature. And the political consequences were huge. The retreat proved that a disciplined Greek phalanx could march through the heart of the Persian empire and survive. It exposed the weakness of the Achaemenid military system when facing determined infantry. And it gave Greek commanders — and later, Alexander the Great — a blueprint for how to challenge Persia. Lucas: For Artaxerxes II, the victory at Cunaxa was hollow. He had killed his rival, but his empire was shown to be vulnerable. And he still had to deal with his mother Parysatis, who never forgave him for Cyrus's death and spent years scheming against him — including poisoning Tissaphernes, the satrap she blamed for the execution of the Greek generals. Court intrigue continued for decades. Luna: So in a way, Cyrus lost the battle, but his rebellion set the stage for future invasions. Lucas: Absolutely. The Ten Thousand didn't conquer Persia, but they showed that it could be done. And Xenophon's Anabasis became a textbook for later Greek and Macedonian commanders. When Alexander invaded Persia 70 years later, he was following a path that had been blazed, in part, by these desperate mercenaries. The battle of Cunaxa is a turning point that doesn't get enough attention — a single day that reshaped the ancient world.