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What happened to Cyrus the Younger at the Battle of Cunaxa?
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Xenophon
Xenophon, statue in front of the parliament building in Vienna.
At the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BCE, Cyrus the Younger led a charge against the center of his brother Artaxerxes IIâs army with 600 cavalry. During this engagement, Cyrus succeeded in wounding his brother but was killed in the process.12
His death effectively ended his attempt to seize the Achaemenian throne. While the Greek mercenaries fighting for Cyrus successfully routed the Persian left wing, they discovered upon their return that the rest of Cyrusâs forces had been defeated and his camp plundered. This outcome forced the remaining Greek troops, including the historian Xenophon, to undertake their famous "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" to the Black Sea.13