Cyrus the Younger (c. 424–401 BC)

Persian commander. Second son of Darius II, King of Persia, he attempted to seize the throne from his brother Artaxerxes II 401 BC and was killed.

Cyrus was given special command over the satrapies (provinces) of Asia Minor 408 BC and assisted the Spartan general Lysander against Athens in the Peloponnesian War. He rebelled against his elder brother Artaxerxes II, who became king of Persia 404 BC. Cyrus assembled a large army, including a considerable force of Greek mercenaries, and set out in the spring of 401 in the hope of seizing the throne. He crossed the Euphrates and marched to Cunaxa, north of Babylon, where he met the army of Artaxerxes and was killed in the battle.

The historian Xenophon, who commanded the surviving Greek mercenaries during their march to the sea after Cunaxa, has left a vivid record of these events in his book Anabasis.