Some seventy years before Alexander set forth on his
expedition the Greeks had witnessed a remarkable disclosure of the military
weakness of Persia. One of those rare revolts which troubled the security of
the Persian Empire broke out in Asia Minor. It was headed by Cyrus the Younger,
a brother of the Persian monarch. Cyrus gathered a large body of native troops
and also hired about ten thousand Greek soldiers. He led this mixed force into
the heart of the Persian dominions, only to fall in battle at Cunaxa, near
Babylon. The Greeks easily routed the enemy arrayed against them, but the death
of Cyrus made their victory fruitless. In spite of their desperate situation
the Greeks refused to surrender and started to return homewards. The Persians
dogged their footsteps, yet never ventured on a pitched battle. After months of
wandering in Assyria and Armenia the little band of intrepid soldiers finally
reached Trapezus, (Modern Trebizond) a Greek city on the Black Sea.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EXPEDITION
The story of this invasion of Persia and the subsequent
retreat was written by the Athenian Xenophon in his Anabasis. It is
one of the most interesting books that have come down to us from antiquity. We
can judge from it how vivid was the impression which the adventures of the
"Ten Thousand" made on the Greeks of Xenophon's time. A small army
had marched to the center of the Persian dominions, had overcome a host many
times its size, and had returned to Greece in safety. It was clear proof that
the Persian power, however imposing on the outside, could offer no effective
resistance to an attack by a strong force of disciplined Greek soldiers.
Henceforth the Greeks never abandoned the idea of an invasion of Persia.
ALEXANDER'S INVASION
The gigantic task fell, however, to Alexander, as the
champion of Hellas against the "barbarians." With an army of less
than forty thousand men Alexander destroyed an empire before which, for two
centuries, all Asia had been wont to tremble. History, ancient or modern,
contains no other record of conquests so widespread, so thorough, so amazingly
rapid.