The battle at Cunaxa of Babylon in 401 BC. constitutes one of the most world-historical conflicts in world history. At the same time, it is also one of the greatest victories of the ancient Greeks, against the Persians.
Cyrus the Younger, having decided to claim the Persian throne from his brother Artaxerxes, gathered strong military forces, with which he intended to move against him. Among the 100,000 men of Cyrus, mentioned by Xenophon, stood out his 13,000 Greek mercenaries, called for the sake of brevity "Myrioi". The Myria were an elite military force, made up of very experienced men, veterans of the disastrous Peloponnesian War.
The corps consisted of 11,500 hoplites, 1,000 peltasts, 500 psils and a few horsemen. The men came from every corner of Greece. The hoplites were mainly Peloponnesians and Boeotians, and the peltasts were Thracians. The Psiloi were Cretans, armed with a bow, a small shield and a manual. Hoplites fought in the classic phalanx formation. The leader of the Myrian corps was the Spartan Clearchus, who had adapted their tactics to Spartan martial doctrines.
To meet fate
After crossing Asia Minor, Cyrus' army moved towards Babylon. The army crossed the irrigation canals of the Euphrates and a deep ditch constructed by Artaxerxes' army and continued its advance. As the army marched, everywhere they saw tracks of men and horses on the ground, a sign that the royal army was retreating before them.
Thus they marched for three days, when suddenly one of Cyrus' horse scouts came galloping up and shouting that the royal army was coming upon them. It was the morning of September 3, 401 BC. As soon as the signal was given the army moved from marching formation to battle formation. The men armed themselves and began to take their assigned positions.
The Greeks lined up on the right horn, covered by the bed of the Euphrates. At the far right were the Greek peltasts and 1,000 Paphlagonian horsemen. The phalanx lined up next to them, with Clearchus commanding the right wing, Consul the center and Menonas the left wing.
The center and left horn of Cyrus' army was formed by Persian and vassal divisions. In the center was also Kyros himself at the head of 600 elite horsemen of his bodyguard. All horsemen of the bodyguard wore breastplates, helmets and parapartia (special armor that protected the warrior's legs and was attached to the saddle).
Cyrus only refused to wear a helmet in order to be easily recognized by his men. From the arrangement of his forces alone, the battle plan of Cyrus becomes apparent. Apparently the Persian prince calculated that the Greeks would prevail against the hostile left.
Then they could flank the enemy center, where Artaxerxes' brother would also be fighting, and with parallel pressure from his own men and especially from his elite bodyguard to break it up. For Cyrus to be crowned the victor, it was not enough to put the opposing army to flight. He had to kill his brother too.
The first Greek raid
Having lined up in this way, Cyrus' men awaited the arrival of the enemy. Indeed around afternoon the huge army of Artaxerxes appeared from the south. "A white cloud of dust appeared, which after an hour turned black over the plain and over a large area", writes Xenophon, impressed by the sight of the approach of the huge army.
On the extreme left, which was commanded by Tissaphernes, were lined up heavily armed horsemen who all wore white Greek linen breastplates. Next to them stood gerophoros (geras =a type of shield) Persians and next to them Egyptian satellites, armed with large shields and spears like the Greeks.
Then other horsemen and archers had come. The soldiers of each nation fought in their own formations, and you could see, according to the eyewitness Xenophon's description, their four-sided formations. In front of the entire front were the scythe chariots.
Faced with the enemy front, which overwhelmingly outnumbered his own in length, Cyrus changed his mind and ordered Clearchus to move in echelons and attack the enemy center. However, Clearchus, an experienced general as he was, did not consider it the right course of action to move towards the center and leave the security that the Euphrates bed ensured him.
If he got away from the river, there was a risk that his necessarily thinned line would break up and the entire phalanx would be surrounded by Tissaphernes' cavalry. For this reason Clearchus replied to Cyrus not to worry and that he himself knew how to fight.
Finally the Asiatic divisions of Cyrus began to march towards meeting the enemy. But the Greeks had not yet begun to move. Clearchus had just given the slogan "Zeus save and win", which passed from mouth to mouth and to the last man. As soon as Clearchus' turn came again to shout the slogan, the order was given and the Greeks began to march.
The distance separating the two armies was no more than 600-800 meters. The Greeks marched with a quick step and sang the paean. As they drew nearer they began to chant and strike their spears against their shields, producing a demonic noise.
In front of this spectacle and before the Greeks approached within the useful range of the bows (150-200 meters) the barbarians facing them turned their backs and fled! Even the drivers of the scythe chariots abandoned them and followed their fleeing colleagues.
And the scythe chariots, with the horses terrified, began to run and cut down the Persian infantry. Some of them turned uncontrollably against the Greeks. But they opened their yokes and let them pass harmlessly between them. In this way, the Greeks destroyed the hostile faction facing them with the only loss of one wounded by an arrow!
The death of Cyrus
However, while the Greeks were literally crushing their enemies, on the other end things do not seem to have developed as favorably for Cyrus. Cyrus's left was bent by the enemy's superiority and Cyrus, fearing that the Greek army would be defeated, attacked from the south with his 600 elite horsemen against Artaxerxes' 6,000 horsemen and routed them.
His victorious horsemen, however, began to pursue the fleeing enemies and only a few, his "co-bankers" remained next to Cyrus. Kyros suddenly became aware of his brother's presence. "Behold, I see him," he said to his men, and rushed upon Artaxerxes. He even managed to wound him in the sternum by even piercing his chest. But at the same moment, Kyros received a javelin under the eye. With their leader badly wounded, Cyrus's few men scrambled to cover him.
In a wild and confused fight that followed they all fell, together with their leader. The victors cut off the head and the right hand of Cyrus, while the dead man's soldiers fled and Artaxerxes' men captured the camp of Cyrus' army. The surviving barbarian soldiers of Cyrus, led by Arius, moved back and stopped 25 km from the battlefield.
Meanwhile inside the camp a great battle broke out between the Greek guards of the camp and the men of Artaxerxes. The latter even captured one of the two Greek concubines of Cyrus. The second managed to escape and ran naked to the Greek guards and was rescued. The Greek guards withstood the enemy pressure for some time.
But as more and more barbarians came against them they turned towards the main body of the Greeks of Clearchus. In the meantime, Artaxerxes had been informed by Tissaphernes that the Greeks had dispersed the forces opposite them and he ordered the reorganization of his forces, so that they could attack the Greeks, who had been victorious until then, anew.
The second Greek raid
Clearchus, however, turned the phalanx and awaited the new enemy attack. At the same time the Greek peltasts, under Episthenes from Amphipolis, managed to inflict huge losses on the elite light cavalry, using a highly intelligent tactic. Accepting the attack of the enemy cavalry, the Greek peltasts either opened their yokes, or fell prostrate on the ground. As soon as the Persian horsemen passed the Greeks began to hit them from close range with spears and even swords! In this way no peltast was harmed in the slightest and the horsemen fled.
Finally Tissaphernes and his men stopped their flight when they encountered the rest of the royal troops. So, now, they all moved together against the Greeks. Now the Greeks would give an all-out fight, alone 13,000 men, against the myriads of Artaxerxes.
The experienced warrior Clearchus, at this critical moment, showed all his worth. He ordered his men to take up positions as near to the river as possible, so that their backs would be covered, and they would be able by a simple slope to cover the flanks as well. On the contrary, the Persians lined up traditionally, as before, and began to march against the indomitable Greeks.
The Greeks, however, did not wait for them. They sang the paean and marched against the enemies. This time the barbarians fled even earlier, pursued by the Greeks. Even the enemy cavalry, the elite Persian cavalry, also fled and did not stand to face the onslaught of the Greek infantry!
The victorious Greeks encamped for the night at the foot of a hill, on the top of which they set up guards. Just before nightfall Lycius of Syracuse, who had been sent by Clearchus to reconnoitre, returned joyfully and reported that "they are leaving by state"! One of the greatest victories of the ancient Greeks, the most misunderstood, had just been achieved.