THE BATTLE OF CUNAXA, A BRILLIANT VICTORY THAT DID NOT SERVE ANYONE

The battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) has become one of the most famous battles of the Antiquity particularly due to Xenophon's work Anabasis, where he gives his own account as an eye witness and an active participant. The battle is just another episode in the expedition of "the Ten Thousand" Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger, by virtue of their fame of fierce warriors, to get the upper hand in the dynastic rivalry with his brother Artaxerxes, King of Persia. For the Greeks, as mere mercenaries, the battle had no other stake than the promised material reward. For Cyrus on the other hand, the highest stake was to capture the throne. True to their fame the Greeks achieve their objective with maximum strategic and human efficiency, but due to his own imprudence, Cyrus, the beneficiary of the would-be victory, is killed in battle. As a result, the Greeks must create new opportunities to get out of this uncertain situation. How they coped with this challenge is a matter for reflection even today. The present article aims to give a brief historical and military analysis of this episode from a modern perspective.