Battle Of Cunaxa And Return Of The Ten Thousand
Cyrus the Younger decided to revolt against his brother Artaxerxes II Mnemon. Cyrus was Satrap of Lydia, Cappadocia and Phrygia and chief commander of Asia Minor. It's possible that queen Parysatis was behind this event. On Oct,5, 401, Cyrus reaches Cunaxa near Babylon with some 30,000 units half of which were Greek mercenaries. Cyrus actually defeats Artaxerxes' army which was twice the size of his own army but he himself dies in action. According to Xenophon who was a mercenary in the Greek army, the rest of his army had to fight their way back. But the story seems to be more a legendary theatrical drama than reality Artaxerxes II proved to be a great politician and had pardoned all soldiers in his brother's army but he wanted them to leave the country without plundering citizen settlements, therefore the Greek army actions were closely supervised by a regiment of Tissaphernes until one night they escaped through the mountains to the Kurdish area. They continue their way towards Armenia leaving behind plunered villages, looted buildings and raped civilians until they reach Anatolia. Xenophon's story however depicts amazing details of the geopolitical structure of the Persian Empire in those times. (Updated: Dec, 27, 2007)
English-Persian Glossary
- Tissaphernes : چيترفرنه
- Artaxerxes : اردشير
- Asia Minor : آسياي کوچک آسياي صغير
- Cappadocia : کاپادوکيه
- Parysatis : پريزاتيش
- Xenophon : گزنوفن
- Anatolia : آناتولي
- Armenia : ارمنستان(Armanestan)
- Persian : فارسي(Farsi,Parsi) ايراني پارسي
- Babylon : بابل
- Kurdish : کرد
- Battle : جنگ
- Satrap : ساتراپ استاندار قديم ايران
- Empire : امپراتوري
- Mnemon : نمون
- Greek : يوناني
- Cyrus : کورش(Kurosh, Kourosh, Koresh)
- Lydia : ليديا
- Asia : آسيا
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