Cyrus The Younger

Cyrus The Younger

Cyrus (Kuruš) the Younger, son of Darius II of Persia (Dārayavahuš) and Parysatis, was a Persian prince and general. The time of his birth is unknown, but he died in 401 B.C. The history of Cyrus and of the retreat of the Greeks is told by Xenophon in his Anabasis. Another account, probably from Sophaenetus of Stymphalus, was used by Ephorus. Further information is contained in the excerpts from Ctesias by Photius; Plutarch’s lives of Artaxerxes II and Lysander; also Thucydides' History of Peloponnesian War. These are the only sources of information on Cyrus the Younger.

According to Xenophon, Cyrus the Younger was born after the accession of his father in 424 BC. In 408 BC, after the victories of Alcibiades, Darius II decided to continue the war against Athens and give strong support to the Spartans. He sent Cyrus the Younger into Asia Minor, as satrap of Lydia and Phrygia Major with Cappadocia, and commander of the Persian troops, "which gather into the field of Castolos", i.e. of the army of the district of Asia Minor.

In the Spartan general Lysander, Cyrus found a man who was willing to help him; as Lysander himself hoped to become absolute ruler of Greece, by the aid of the Persian prince. So Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the Peloponnesian War, but denied them to his successor Callicratidas.

At the same time Darius fell ill and called his son to his deathbed; Cyrus handed over all his treasures to Lysander and went to Susa. After the accession of Artaxerxes II in 404 BC, Tissaphernes (Ciθrafarna) denounced the plans of Cyrus against his brother but, by the intercession of Parysatis, was pardoned and sent back to his satrapy.

Lysander won the battle of Aegospotami and Sparta became more influential in the Greek world. Cyrus managed to gather a large army by beginning a quarrel with Tissaphernes, satrap of Caria, about the Ionian towns; he also pretended to prepare an expedition against the Pisidians, a mountainous tribe in the Taurus, which was never obedient to the Empire.

In the spring of 401 BC, Cyrus united all his forces into an army now including Xenophon's "Ten Thousand", and advanced from Sardis, without announcing the object of his expedition. By dexterous management and large promises he overcame the misgivings of the Greek troops over the length and danger of the war; a Spartan fleet of thirty-five triremes sent to Cilicia opened the passes of the Amanus into Syria and conveyed to him a Spartan detachment of 700 men under Cheirisophus. The king had only been warned at the last moment by Tissaphernes and gathered an army in haste; Cyrus advanced into Babylonia, before he met with an enemy. In October 401 BC, the battle of Cunaxa ensued. Cyrus had 10,400 Greek hoplites and 2,500 peltasts, and an Asiatic army of approximately 10,000 under the command of Ariaeus.

Cyrus saw that the outcome depended on the fate of the king; he therefore wanted Clearchus, the commander of the Greeks, to take the centre against Artaxerxes. Clearchus, out of arrogance, disobeyed. As a result the left wing of the Persians under Tissaphernes was free to engage the rest of Cyrus' forces; Cyrus in the centre threw himself upon Artaxerxes, but was slain in a desperate struggle. Tissaphernes claimed to have killed the rebel himself, with the result that Parysatis later took cruel vengeance upon the slayer of her favorite son. The Persian troops, instead of attacking the Greeks via a direct assault, decoyed them into the interior, beyond the Tigris, and then attack through trickery. It was a solid and clever plan but, after their commanders had been taken prisoners, the Greeks managed to force their way to the Black Sea. This achievement demonstrated the potential superiority of Greek soldiers over their Persian adversaries. It is thought that this was the reason why Philip II of Macedon formulated his strategy of defeating the Persian Empire by means of a compact and well-trained army, a feat accomplished by his son, Alexander the Great.