Battle of Cunaxa

Battle of Cunaxa
	; Retreat of the Ten Thousand, at the Battle of Cunaxa, by Jean Adrien Guignet
Date	3 September 401 BC
Location	Banks of the Euphrates, Achaemenid Empire (near present-day Baghdad, Iraq)33°19′30″N 44°04′48″E / 33.32500°N 44.08000°E
Result	Indecisive
Belligerents
Cyrus loyalists	Artaxerxes loyalists
Commanders and leaders
Cyrus the Younger †; Clearchus ; Cheirisophus;	Artaxerxes II (WIA); Gobrias; Tissaphernes; Orontes;
Strength
25,700 15,700 Greeks 10,000 Persians	40,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Battle of Cunaxa was fought in the late summer of 401 BC between the Persian king Artaxerxes II and his brother Cyrus the Younger for control of the Achaemenid throne. The great battle of the revolt of Cyrus took place 70 km north of Babylon, at Cunaxa (Greek: Κούναξα), on the left bank of the Euphrates. The main source is Xenophon, a Greek soldier who participated in the fighting. Despite the success in the battle achieved by the interaction of the Greek mercenaries and the Persian troops of Cyrus, the outcome of the battle and the death of the pretender to the throne led to the defeat of the entire uprising and forced Greeks to commit Anabasis.