Let us imagine for a moment that, as soon as the Spanish Civil War is over, an army of ten thousand mercenaries at the service of the defeated side is trapped in Madrid. And let’s imagine, let’s continue imagining that those ten thousand mercenaries, unemployed and surrounded by enemies, have no other alternative to save their skin than to go to the port of Valencia, a place they will finally get to, but not before taking a tour of the dos Castillas, Andalusia and much of Levante.
Well, something similar, saving geographical and temporal distances, distances that do nothing but magnify the feat that now concerns us, was what ten thousand Greeks carried out, back in the 401 BC, in the heart of the mighty Persian Empire. The events unfolded, in summary, as follows:
He had ascended the Persian throne Artaxerxes IIwho had a brother named Cyrus (to whom posterity would place the surname of the young man to distinguish him from his namesake the Great) with whom he did not have very good relations, an enmity that, apparently, was fostered by the boys’ own mother. Even so, and although Cyrus had already been accused by the satrap (governor or head of a province) Thisaphernes as a conspirator, the little brother had been allowed to command a province, probably more to keep him away than because of his government skills.
But ambition knows no bounds, and finally Cyrus decided to move from palace conspiracy to military action and amassed an army of loyal Persians, a small army, forcing him to seek mercenary forces abroad. And what better place for these tasks than neighboring Greece, where thousands of soldiers with little desire to leave the trade and dedicate themselves to the tasks of civilian life were on forced unemployment after the end of the Peloponnesian War. And that’s how ten thousand Greeks, commanded by the Spartan Clearchuswere planted in Persia to put Cyrus on the throne.
The brothers’ troops met in Cradlevillage that gave name to the battle which was fought there and in which, despite the fact that the Greeks defeated the enemy on their flank, Cyrus the Younger was killed. Since the contracting party had left this world and the loyal Persians had vanished, the Greek mercenaries suddenly found themselves thousands of miles from home, with no cause to fight for other than their own survival, which It’s not little.
Tissaphernes, who was involved in all the trouble, called the Greek generals to seek a settlement. And since the satrap was clear that the Greeks were superior in battle, but enemies after all, he had no other idea than to cut off the heads of Clearchus and his staff, understanding that his soldiers, headless, they would not hesitate to surrender.
But the Greeks were not for the job. They appointed new chiefs, including Xenophonwho would later tell us, under a pseudonym, this story in his Anabasis, and decided to return home. And that is where the withdrawal itself begins. The chosen path was north, in search of the Greek colonies of the Black Sea. Harassed by the Persians on the plain, they crossed the Tigris and entered the mountains of Armenia, where Tissaphernes ceased to bother them, giving up the work to the crudeness of the relief. They finally manage to reach Trebizond, where the steps to be repatriated by sea to Greece begin. It would take them a long time to get home, mostly because even the Greek cities themselves didn’t have much faith in an army corps capable of selling itself to the highest bidder, even if it was the one that had razed Athens years before.
So far the summary of what happened. Of course, you can always fault Xenophon’s somewhat fictional account of the expedition. It can be said that, in reality, there were thirteen thousand and not ten thousand. Or that the Persian king Artaxerxes was never too concerned about the ten thousand, once his brother was dead. It could even be argued that Xenophon did not have the role that he attributes to himself in his book, others being the true leaders of the retreat.
But what cannot be denied is that this event, with or without embellishments, demonstrated to the Greeks that the Persian Empire was, as some historians have said, a giant of clay and that a war could be waged at home without further ado. issue. In fact, the Spartan king Agesilaus first and, of course, the great Alexander then they did not hesitate to go against the Persians.
By the way, and to end this article with some poetic justice, do you know what the Persians offered Agesilaus as a goodwill present in the peace negotiations? Yes, the head of Tissaphernes, literally.
Recommended bibliography:
AnabasisXenophon.
Greeks and Persians: the Mediterranean world in the Ancient AgeHermann Bengtson.