Cyrus the Younger, son of Darius II and Parysatis, was a Persian prince and general. The time of his birth is unknown, but he died in 401 BC. Darius II, originally called Ochus and often surnamed Nothus (from Greek νοθος, meaning bastard), was emperor of Persia from 423 BC to 404 BC. Artaxerxes I, who died shortly after December 24, 424 BC, was followed by his son Xerxes II. After a month and a... Parysatis was the illegitimate daughter of Artaxerxes I, Emperor of Persia and Andia of Babylon. ... Persian art is conscious of a great past, and monumental in many respects. ... A General is an officer of high military rank. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC - 400s BC - 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC Years: 406 BC 405 BC 404 BC 403 BC 402 BC - 401 BC - 400 BC 399 BC...

He was born after the accession of his father in 424 BC. When, after the victories of Alcibiades, Darius II decided to continue the war against Athens and give strong support to the Spartans, he sent in 408 the young prince 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. Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC - 420s BC - 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC Years: 429 BC 428 BC 427 BC 426 BC 425 BC - 424 BC - 423 BC 422 BC... Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (Greek: ; English /ælsɪbaɪədi:z/; 450 BC–404 BC), also transliterated as Alkibiades, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. ... Nickname: City of Athena or Cradle of Democracy Location of the city of Athens (red dot) within the Prefecture of Athens and Periphery of Attica Coordinates: Country Greece Peripheries Attica Prefecture Athens Founded circa 2000 BC Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis Area    - City 38. ... Coordinates 37°4′ N 22°26′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Laconia Population 18,184 source (2001) Area 84. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Lydia (Greek ) is a historic region of western Anatolia, congruent with Turkeys modern provinces of Ä°zmir and Manisa. ... Location of Phrygia - traditional region (yellow) - expanded kingdom (orange line) In antiquity, Phrygia (Greek: ) was a kingdom in the west central part of the Anatolian Highland, part of modern Turkey. ... Map showing Cappadocia as a province of the Armenian Empire under Tigranes the Great Photo of a 15th Century map showing Capadocia. In ancient geography, Cappadocia (or Capadocia) (from Persian: Katpatuka meaning the land of beautiful horses, Greek: Καππαδοκία; see also List of traditional Greek place names; Turkish Kapadokya) was an...

He gave strenuous support to the Spartans; evidently he had already then formed the design, in which he was supported by his mother, of gaining the throne for himself after the death of his father; he pretended to have stronger claims to it than his elder brother Artaxerxes, who was not born in the purple. For this plan he hoped to gain the assistance of Sparta. In the Spartan general Lysander he 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; by exerting his influence in Sparta, he brought it about that after the battle of Arginusae Lysander was sent out a second time as the real commander (though under a nominal chief) of the Spartan fleet in 405. Lysander (d. ... Combatants Delian League led by Athens Peloponnesian League led by Sparta Commanders Pericles Cleon Nicias Alcibiades Archidamus II Brasidas Lysander For the earlier war beginning in 460 BC, see First Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War (431 BC–404 BC) was an Ancient Greek military conflict fought between Athens and its... Callicratidas was a Spartan naval commander in the Peloponnesian War. ... Combatants Sparta Athens Commanders Callicratidas† 8 generals Strength 120 ships 155 ships Casualties 70 ships 25 ships The naval Battle of Arginusae took place in 406 BC during the Peloponnesian War just east of the island of Lesbos. ...

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, Tissaphernes denounced the plans of Cyrus against his brother but, by the intercession of Parysatis, he was pardoned and sent back to his satrapy. Winged sphinx from the palace of Darius the Great at Susa. ... Artaxerxes II (c. ... Tissaphernes (Pers. ...

Meanwhile Lysander had won the battle of Aegospotami and Sparta was supreme in the Greek world. Cyrus managed very cleverly 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. Combatants Sparta Athens Commanders Lysander 6 generals Strength 170 ships Casualties Very few All but 10 ships, thousands of sailors The Battle of Aegospotami was the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War. ... Location of Caria Caria (Greek Καρία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a region of Asia Minor, situated south of Ionia, and west of Phrygia and Lycia. ... Ionia (Greek Ιωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an ancient region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (now in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea. ... Pisidia was an inland region in southern Anatolia. ... The Taurus Mountains or simply the Taurus, (Turkish Toros, also known as Ala-Dagh or Bulghar-Dagh) are a mountain range, forming the rugged southeastern rim of the Anatolian plateau, from which the Euphrates River descends into Syria. ...

Although the dominant position of Lysander had been broken in 403 by King Pausanias, the Spartan government gave him all the support which was possible without going into open war against the king; it caused a partisan of Lysander, Clearchus, condemned to death on account of atrocious crimes which he had committed as governor of Byzantium, to gather an army of mercenaries on the Thracian Chersonesus, and in Thessaly Menon of Pharsalus, head of a party which was connected with Sparta, collected another army. Pausanias was King of Sparta from 409 BC. In 395 BC, Pausanias failed to join forces with Lysander, and for this was condemned to death and replaced as king by his son Agesipolis I. Pausanias escaped execution, and left Sparta to live in exile in Tegea. ... Clearchus (Greek: Κλέαρχος), the son of Rhamphias, was a Spartan general and mercenary. ... Byzantium, present day Istanbul, was an ancient Greek city-state, which according to legend was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas (Βύζας or Βύζαντας in Greek). ... Mercenary (disambiguation). ... Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ...

In the spring of 401, Cyrus united all his forces into the group now called the "Ten Thousand" and advanced from Sardis, without announcing the object of his expedition. By dexterous management and large promises he overcame the scruples of the Greek troops against 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 Ten Thousand were a group of mercenary units, mainly Greek, drawn up by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Battle of Cunaxa and back to Greece (401 BC-399 BC) was recorded by... A recent view of the ceremonial court of the thermae–gymnasium complex in Sardis, dated to 211—212 AD Sardis, (also Sardes, Greek: Σάρδεις), modern Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and... A Greek trireme Triremes (Greek Τριήρεις) are several different types of ancient warships. ... Cilicia as Roman province, 120 AD In Antiquity, Cilicia (Κιλικία) was the name of a region, now known as Çukurova, and often a political unit, on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), north of Cyprus. ...

The king had only been warned at the last moment by Tissaphernes and gathered an army in all haste; Cyrus advanced into Babylonia, before he met with an enemy. Here ensued, in October 401, the battle of Cunaxa. Cyrus had 10,400 Greek hoplites and 2500 peltasts, and besides an Asiatic army under the command of Ariaeus, for which Xenophon gives the absurd number of 100,000 men; the army of Artaxerxes he puts down at 900,000. In reality the army of Cyrus may at the very utmost have consisted of 30,000, and that of Artaxerxes, 40,000 men. 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 under the Spartan general Clearchus, and met Artaxerxes at Cunaxa on the left... Xenophon, Greek historian Xenophon (In Greek , c. ...

Cyrus saw that the decision depended on the fate of the king; he therefore wanted Clearchus, the commander of the Greeks, to take the centre against Artaxerxes. But Clearchus, a tactician of the old school, disobeyed. The left wing of the Persians under Tissaphernes avoided a serious conflict with the Greeks; Cyrus in the centre threw himself upon Artaxerxes, but was slain in a desperate struggle. Afterwards Tissaphernes pretended to have killed the rebel himself, with the result that Parysatis took cruel vengeance upon the slayer of her favourite son. The Persian troops dared not attack the Greeks, but decoyed them into the interior, beyond the Tigris, and tried to annihilate them by treachery. But, after their commanders had been taken prisoners, the Greeks forced their way to the Black Sea. By this achievement they had demonstrated the internal weakness of the Persian empire and the absolute superiority of the Greek arms. 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. The Tigris River (Arabic: دجلة Dijla, Hebrew: חדקל ḥiddeqel, Kurdish: Dîjle, Pahlavi: Tigr, Old Persian: Tigrā-, Syriac: ܕܩܠܬ Deqlath, Turkish: Dicle, Akkadian: Idiqlat) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq (the name Mesopotamia... NASA satelite image of the Black Sea Map of the Black Sea The Black Sea is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Anatolia that is actually a distant arm of the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Mediterranean Sea. ... Philip II of Macedon: victory medal (niketerion) struck in Tarsus, 2nd c. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and at times extending into central and mid-east Asia. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: ,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history. ...

The history of Cyrus and of the retreat of the Greeks is told by Xenophon in his Anabasis (where he tries to veil the actual participation of the Spartans). Another account, probably from Sophaenetus of Stymphalus, was used by Ephorus, and is preserved in Diodor. xiv. 19 if. Further information is contained in the excerpts from Ctesias by Photius; cf. also Plutarch’s life of Artaxerxes. The Persian Expedition, Penguin Classics edition of Xenophons Anabasis, translated by Rex Warner Anabasis Aνάβασις is the most famous work of the Greek writer Xenophon. ... Ephorus (c. ... Ctesias of Cnidus (in Caria) (Greek ), was a Greek physician and historian, who flourished in the 5th century BC. In early life he was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger. ... Photius (b. ... Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46 - 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was an Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.