The Defeat of Cyrus
After the Peloponnesian War, Darius II King of Persia died and his two son’s Artaxerxes and Cyrus began quarreling for dominion over the throne.
Eventually Artaxerxes took possession of the throne and became the new King via force, but Cyrus swore to continue seeking the throne, and then went about gathering his supporters in an effort to lead his army against his brother. But his Persian followers were inadequate in number, so Cyrus was forced to look elsewhere for aid in his ambitious quest against his brother. His attention then fell on Greece, land of the warrior race, of whom fighting prowess was renowned throughout the land. He hired 11,000 Greeks led by Clearchus, a Spartan general, to help him and marched on his brother.
They clashed at Cunaxa but Cyrus was slain and the Persians surrendered. The Greeks continued fighting bravely on against impossible odds until an exasperated Artaxerxes, having already defeated his brother's forces, prepared a message for the savage Greeks that the very man they had been fighting for was dead and there was no point in continuing to fight further. The message also stated that they all would be transported safely home back to Greece if they were only to stop fighting and comply with his request to lay down their arms. The tiring Greek soldiers readily agreed to this, and laying down their arms as proposed halted their fighting and began preparing for their home journey back to the native soil they so loved that lay a good eight-months march due west. Artaxerxes also grandly invited all the Greek officers, generals, and those in positions of power within the Greek army to a great council of the Generals, where all those on both sides, the Persians and the Greeks, who held militaristic power would meet and discuss matters of war. The Greek army commanders replied that they would be honored and hurried to the meeting where as the treacherous and scheming Persians awaited their arrival with grim hearts and sharp steel. As the Greek military commanders filed idly into the pavilion whereas the meeting was to be held, they were beset suddenly by an onslaught of flashing steel and whirling blades that deftly ended their surprise and replaced it with a sudden flash of excruciating pain, and then a cold numbness that was death.
The Greeks military infrastructure was then shattered and when the now leaderless Greeks received word of their leaders’ demise they despaired as of what to do. For, stranded as they were in a strange land without directions and lacking a single interpreter amongst them, or provisions and Persian currency, they were in a sense utterly helpless, stranded in the middle of a completely alien and possibly hostile environment. They had not but their armor and weapons that they had managed to retain and couldn't even manage a good night’s rest as they were constantly in danger being surprised by Artaxerxes men that were searching day and night for them. Besides it was all the more difficult to sleep with the multitudes of wretched men bewailing their plight, and the ever present knowledge that there was a good possibility that they may never see their home again, even if they managed to evade the ever present Persian search parties for a time.
But, they were in luck. A young man and former pupil of Socrates was amongst them, and as the others wandered aimlessly about their hurriedly constructed make-shift camp Xenophon plotted all the night and by the morn he had constructed a viable plan. Although not flawless, it was well worth attempting as they literally had nothing to lose, not even their freedom. The plan was if they were but to unite into a compact force and push steadfastly north they possibly would find themselves at the Black Sea.
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