"Battle of Cunaxa " Topic

"When the Persian king Darius II died in 404 BCE, the throne of the Achaemenid Persion Empire passed to his eldest son, as normal, who became Artaxerxes II. However his second son, known as Cyrus the Younger, decided to seize the throne for himself, and built up an army with which he moved to challenge his brother in 401 BCE. His army and that of the king's met at Cunaxa, 70km north of Babylon, and both sides enjoyed some success. However during the fighting Cyrus was killed, and so his army dispersed and many mercenaries went home. Artaxerxes went on to rule until 358 BCE, conducting conflicts with Greek states and attempting to reconquer the lost Egyptian province, but with no serious external aggressors most of the king's troubles were ones of internal rebellions.

In the West, mention of the Persian Empire tends to be conjure up two famous campaigns; the unsuccessful invasion of Greece (Marathon, Salamis etc.) and the invasion of Alexander the Great, which destroyed the empire. The revolt of Cyrus the Younger and the battle of Cunaxa are roughly equidistance between these two events, and not so well documented, particularly in terms of the makeup of the king's Persian Army. In an earlier age Herodotus tells us there were two regiments of 1,000 men each, which he calls ‘spear-bearers', that were the royal bodyguard and the elite of the army. Ranking below them were the ‘Immortals', 10,000 infantry that were hand-picked as the best of the rest of the army, and so-called because when anyone left or was killed their numbers were always maintained. This was the heart of the army, the best and most professional troops, and the rest were made up of levies (of often poor quality), mercenaries, and some professional troops in the service of one of the satraps (provincial governors)…."

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Amicalement
Armand

Nice work but they aren't metal.

Glad you like them my friend!. (smile)

No, they are not….

Amicalement
Armand

yes good thing they are not metal

Hence a posting to the plastics board. Or am I missing something here…