Cyrus the Younger

Cyrus the Younger (424?-401 bc), Persian prince, son of Darius II, king of Persia, and brother of Artaxerxes II (reigned 404-358?bc). In 408 bc he was made satrap (governor) of the Persian provinces in western Asia Minor and was ordered to assist the forces of Sparta during the last years of the Peloponnesian War. When Darius died and Artaxerxes succeeded (404 bc) to the throne, Cyrus planned a revolt, but his plan was revealed by Tissaphernes (f. 413-395 bc), the satrap of Caria. Cyrus was pardoned through the influence of his mother, Parysatis, and sent back to his satrapy. There he collected a force of about 100,000 Persian subjects and 13,000 Greeks, mainly Spartans whom Cyrus helped win the Peloponnesian War. Under the pretext of leading an expedition against bandits in Pisidia, he set forth from Sardis toward Babylon, then under Persian rule. In 401 bc the armies of Artaxerxes met those of Cyrus in battle at Cunaxa, near the Euphrates River, and Cyrus was killed while fighting. An important repercussion of this battle was the strategic retreat of the Greeks through the heart of Persian territory to the Black Sea, exposing the military weakness of the Persians to the Greek world. The story of Cyrus's revolt and of the march of the Ten Thousand Greeks was told by the Athenian general and historian Xenophon in the Anabasis.