Cyrus the Younger
Who was Cyrus the Younger?
Achaemenid prince, satrap of Lydia from 408 to 401 BC
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Cyrus the Younger (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Cyrus the Younger (c. 424–401 BC) was a Persian prince, general, and satrap whose short but impactful career left a big impression on the ancient world. He was the son of Darius II and the influential queen Parysatis. Born at the top of Persian royalty, he was named after his famous ancestor, Cyrus the Great. His mother strongly favored him over his older brother Artaxerxes II, which motivated his ambitions and political actions throughout his life. We know about him mainly through Greek sources, especially Xenophon's Anabasis, which details his campaign against Artaxerxes and the difficult return of his Greek soldiers after his death at the Battle of Cunaxa.
Before Fame
Cyrus grew up in the Achaemenid court while his father Darius II ruled, a time of internal power struggles and ongoing conflicts with the Greek city-states. Being a younger son, he had a prestigious position but wasn't in line to inherit the throne. His mother Parysatis favored him over his older brother, creating tensions that significantly impacted his life. His education likely followed the Persian aristocratic traditions, including horsemanship, archery, and governance.
Key Achievements
- Administered the satrapies of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia effectively from 408 to 401 BC, consolidating Persian control over western Anatolia
- Provided decisive financial and logistical support to Sparta that contributed to the Spartan victory in the Peloponnesian War
- Assembled and led a multinational army of over forty thousand troops, including ten thousand Greek mercenaries, deep into the Persian heartland in 401 BC
- Built a broad coalition of Greek commanders and mercenary forces through personal diplomacy and reputation, demonstrating extraordinary organizational capacity
- Became the subject of Xenophon's Anabasis, an account of his campaign that became one of antiquity's most influential military and literary works
Did You Know?
- 01.Xenophon's Anabasis describes Cyrus as personally pardoning a Spartan officer named Clearchus who had violated Persian law, illustrating his calculated cultivation of Greek military loyalty.
- 02.Cyrus reportedly told Lysander that he would sell his personal jewelry and gold throne to fund the Spartan fleet, a gesture that cemented one of antiquity's most consequential Greek-Persian alliances.
- 03.At the Battle of Cunaxa, the Greek mercenaries on Cyrus's side won their portion of the engagement so decisively that they did not realize their commander had already been killed in the fighting elsewhere on the field.
- 04.Parysatis, Cyrus's mother, allegedly took revenge on those responsible for her son's death in gruesome detail, according to Ctesias, including reportedly torturing the soldier credited with delivering the fatal blow.
- 05.Cyrus the Younger was sometimes called Cyrus III in later scholarship, though this designation was rarely used in ancient sources, which typically distinguished him simply by the epithet 'the Younger' to separate him from Cyrus the Great.