Cunaxa

 

(kyūnăk'sə) , ancient town of Babylonia, near the Euphrates River, NE of Ctesiphon. It was the scene of a battle (401 B.C.) between Cyrus the Younger and Artaxerxes II, described by Xenophon in the Anabasis. Clearchus, Spartan mercenary leader under Cyrus, chose to attack the Persian left wing (under Tissaphernes), which he completely routed and pursued. When he and his Ten Thousand returned, they found that Cyrus had fought hard in the center, had broken Artaxerxes' bodyguard, but in the moment of victory had been killed. Cyrus' army, demoralized, had broken up, and the Persians had taken the field. The retreat of the Ten Thousand northward is the most famous feature of the campaign.

Battle of Cunaxa
Date Summer of 401 BC Location On the banks of the Euphrates near present-day Baghdad, Iraq Result Tactical Rebel victory Strategic Persian Empire victory
Combatants
Cyrus Loyalists Greek Mercenaries	Persian Empire
Commanders
Cyrus the Younger † Clearchus	Artaxerxes II
Strength
A large force of Persian soldiers[1] 10,400 Mercenary Hoplites 2,500 Mercenary Peltasts 1,000 Paphlagonian Cavalry 600 Bodyguard Cavalry 20 Scythed Chariots	Persian army substantially outnumbered that of Cyrus [2] 6,000 Bodyguard Cavalry 200 Scythed Chariots
Casualties
Unknown Allied Minimal Greek	Heavy

The Battle of Cunaxa was fought in 401 BC between Cyrus the Younger and his elder brother Arsaces, who had seized the Persian throne as Artaxerxes II in 404 BC. Cyrus gathered an army of Greek mercenaries, consisting of 10,400 hoplites and 2,500 peltasts, under the Spartan general Clearchus, and met Artaxerxes at Cunaxa on the left bank of the Euphrates River, 70 kilometres North of Babylon. Artaxerxes had about 200 scythed chariots compared to about 20 available to Cyrus. Something like this same ratio probably applies to the ratio of non-Greek troops available to each side. Artaxerxes certainly enjoyed a superiority in cavalry. The tactical outcome of the battle is disputed but as Cyrus died in the battle it was a political and strategic victory for Arsaces.

On Cyrus’s death Clearchus assumed the chief command and conducted the retreat, until, being treacherously seized with his fellow-generals by Tissaphernes, he was handed over to Artaxerxes and executed. Stranded deep in enemy territory, with most of their generals dead, Xenophon played an instrumental role in encouraging the "Ten Thousand" Greek army to march north to the Black Sea in an epic fighting retreat. This story is recorded in Anabasis by Xenophon who accompanied the "expedition up country".

Notes

Further reading

• Xenophon, The Persian Expedition, trans. by Rex Warner, Penguin, 1949.
• Montagu, John D. Battles of the Greek and Roman Worlds, Greenhill Books, 2000.
• Prevas, John. Xenophon's March: Into the Lair of the Persian Lion, Da Capo, 2002.
• Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon's Retreat: Greece, Persia, and the End of the Golden Age, Belknap Press, 2006.

External links

• Battles of Artaxerxes II
• The Retreat of the Ten Thousand

Donate to Wikimedia