22.6 The Battle of Cunaxa
Three days later Cyrus’ army was still marching south with no enemy in sight. The column had dissolved into a disorderly rabble, with Cyrus confidently driving in his chariot, unprotected. Suddenly a staff officer galloped up to him to report that a massive army was arrayed against him and moving north to attack. Cyrus quickly issued orders to assume battle formation and his men madly raced to their stations and armed themselves. The Greeks occupied the right wing, the position for aggressive movement, with the Euphrates on their right; Cyrus commanded Persian forces in the center, personally leading a division of 600 cavalry; and Ariaeus commanded Cyrus’ Persian forces on the left wing.
The Greeks first saw a great white cloud of dust, then a black line of men on the horizon. As the enemy approached the Greeks observed the glint of sunlight on bronze spears. The multinational army of the Great King was arrayed in ethnic units grouped in large squares. The Greeks saw approaching them on the west side of the enemy line horsemen wearing white breastplates, commanded by Tissaphernes the satrap; east of them marched soldiers with wicker shields, then Egyptian soldiers with long wooden shields that reached their feet. In front was a row of deadly scythe-chariots with curved blades attached to the hubs of the wheels, designed to mow down soldiers like grain. Unlike Greek armies that shouted as they attacked, the barbarians advanced in eerie silence.
As the two armies closed, Cyrus drove along the front of the Greek phalanx with his interpreter and a few attendants, ordering Clearchus to lead his forces to the center. He wanted to use the Greeks as shock troops to lead a charge against the Great King himself. But Clearchus refused to budge from the right wing. Without the river on his right, his phalanx was vulnerable to encirclement. Besides, the phalanx could not easily pick up and move itself sideways from one end of a battlefield to another; its natural motion was forward, forward, relentlessly, irresistibly forward. Furthermore, due to the sudden mustering of the army, Greek troops were still assembling. At this late stage a redeployment was out of the question. Xenophon himself briefly conferred with Cyrus before the prince returned to the center.
When the two armies were within a half mile of each other, the Greeks sang the paean and began to advance. They shouted a war cry to Ares as they broke into a run, some clashing their spears and shields together to startle the enemy horses. The silent barbarians watched with growing fear as the wall of bronze shields, spears, crimson tunics, and crested helmets of crazed hoplites approached at a dead run, uttering blood-curdling cries. Suddenly, the barbarian line broke without even awaiting the onslaught. Most of the scythe-chariots also fled, cutting down their own soldiers. Some horses, panicking without drivers — who had fled on foot — ran dragging their chariots toward the Greek lines, where the Greeks stepped aside to let them pass.
Now the Greeks were in headlong pursuit and the left wing of Artaxerxes’ army in headlong flight. Of the Greek forces consisting now of almost 12,000 hoplites and more than 2000 peltasts, only one man was wounded in the day’s battle. In fact, the whole left half of Artaxerxes’ army fled en masse, leaving the field empty all the way to Cyrus’ position. Greek military prowess — and a record of seventy-five years of invincibility against Persian troops — had proved itself against the barbarians yet again. Asian and Egyptian troops could no more stand against the Greek phalanx than Queen Epyaxa and her ladies in waiting.
As the Greeks concluded their pursuit, they heard that their baggage was being raided by the enemy. They turned around and marched back north toward their equipment some four miles away. As they approached the camp they saw the Persian army forming up against them, so that now the positions of the two armies were reversed from earlier, with the Persians on the north and the Greeks on the south. The Greeks closed with their enemies, sang the paean, and charged. The army of Artaxerxes again broke before receiving the onslaught, and this time fled north. The Great King now rallied his cavalry around a hill where he flew his pennant, portraying a golden eagle or falcon on a shield. As the Greeks approached, the king and his force fled again. When the Greeks occupied the hill their lookouts saw the whole enemy army scattering like sheep as the sun was setting.
The Greek returned to their camp to find it pillaged and the food gone. But the big question was, where was Cyrus?
