Cyrus the Younger

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Cyrus the Younger (Greek Κῦρος , Persian کوروش, Old Persian Kūruš , Babylonian Kuraš , Elamite Kuraš , Latin Cyrus , Aramaic Kureš , Hebrew כורש Koreš ; * shortly after his father's accession to the throne in 423 BC Chr .; † 401 BC BC ) was a prince from the ancient Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids .

Life

Cyrus was the second eldest son of the great king Dareios II and the Parysatis . Greek sources call him "the younger" to distinguish him from Cyrus II . According to the Persika of Ktesias of Knidos , of which only fragments have survived, the mother of Cyrus was already queen when she gave birth to her son. Apparently she preferred Cyrus over her other children, especially since he was the first son to be born a “ purple-born ”, i.e. H. was born when Cyrus' father Darius was already king.

408 BC BC he became viceroy of Asia Minor , satrap of Lydia , Greater Phrygia and Cappadocia and through his rule over these three provinces the "commander of the troops that arise in the plain of Kastolos ".

In the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta , the very young Cyrus acted as Karanos (a kind of commander-in-chief) in Asia Minor . In this function he supported the Spartan general Lysander with subsidies, which contributed to the defeat of Athens in 404 BC. Chr. Contributed. Cyrus excelled not only as a general, but also as a gardener. Lysander admired the regularity of his tree plantings in Sardis, which the prince himself had planted, Xenophon imitated the hunting gardens of Cyrus, which he imitated on his estate after his return to Greece and thus also introduced their Persian name pairi-daēza as Paradeisos to Hellas.

In the winter of 405/404 BC Darius died. Parysatis had previously tried to persuade him to make Cyrus heir to the throne, but in vain. Arsakes, the older brother of Cyrus, instead ascended the throne as Artaxerxes II . As a result, Cyrus is said to have planned an assassination attempt on Artaxerxes, which was betrayed by the satrap Tissaphernes . Parysatis persuaded Artaxerxes not only to forgive Cyrus for this act, but also to reinstate him as commander in Asia Minor.

Back in his residence in Sardis , Cyrus planned the revolt against Artaxerxes. With the help of his Greek guest friends ( Klearchus , Proxenus of Thebes ) and Xenias of Parrhasia, who was in his service, he recruited several thousand Greek mercenaries. Sparta sent Cyrus, probably because of his help in the Peloponnesian War, the strategist Cheirisophos with 700 hoplites and also provided ships. Cyrus pretended a campaign against insurgents and moved in the spring of 401 BC. With a huge army to the east.

180 days after leaving Sardis, in autumn 401 BC At Kunaxa the troops of Cyrus to those of Artaxerxes, who had alerted Tissaphernes. The Greek troops of Cyrus already seemed to be victorious over the Persian units when Cyrus led a daring attack against the center of Artaxerxes. Cyrus tried to kill his brother but was hit by a spear and died shortly afterwards.

swell

The Greek historian Xenophon , who, at the invitation of his friend Proxenus, took part in the campaign as a private individual and war correspondent, conveys a very positive image of Cyrus. Persian sources are missing. Reports by other ancient authors (e.g. Sophainetus of Stymphalos , Ktesias of Knidos and Dinon of Colophon ) have only survived in fragments.

  • W. Müri (Ed.): Xenophons Anabasis. The train of ten thousand . Artemis, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7608-1661-4 (translation of the anabasis ).

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Xenophon , Hellenika I, 4,3.
  2. ↑ Oikonomikos 4.20f.
  3. ↑ For the following cf. Pierre Briant: From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire . Winona Lake 2002, pp. 615ff.
personal data
SURNAME Cyrus the Younger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Persian military leader
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 401 BC Chr.
Place of death Babylon