[Multi-AAR] - History of men

[Fixiwee]

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
-Bertrand Russell

King Kûrus faces King Nabu-na'id



The world in 553. The Persians can be seen in purple, the Babylonians in blue and the Medians in green.

Excerpt from “Life and Death of Kûrus” by Professor James Marshal, Chicago, 1994

After his surpising victory at Susim King Kûrus had an army that proved themselves worthy in battle and an enemy who provoked him into war. Since we do not have Vidarnas account on the war against the city of Babylon itself the exact reconstruction of the campaign is uncertain to a degree. We do however have fragments of the annual reports of the city of Babylon itself and Demonstenes account.



We can reconstruct that the Babylonian king did not have any inner defenses and his manpower of emergency troops were depleeted because of the war against Egypt. For king Kûrus, the whole Babylonian empire lay befor him ready to be taken. But it seems that Kûrus did not have the necessary military power to occupy the key cities and after all the Babylonian king was still sitting on a throne in the capital. So Kûrus had to get rid of Nabu-na'id first, but he knew that in the east the Babylonians had their main army ready for retaliation. His march on Babylon was not without danger.

Demostenens of Ancyle – History of the greeks
(written at about 420-400 BC)

From book V:
[...]
54. It is not without troubles for me reconstructing what happened at the walls of Babylon, because there is much myth and little actual knowledge passed on. I will therefor remain to the facts I believe to be true.
55. When King Kûrus reached the walls of Babylon he was so impressed by the height and thought of them to be unbreachable. So he ordered his man to lay siege and let no man and no woman in or out of the city. The army remained like this for months and Nabu-na'id was in a desperate situation because there were no supplies stored in the city. Some soldiers, old and young, still loyal to their king, gathered from the surroundings of Babylon to help Nabu-na'id. It was then that the old man on the Babylonian throne saw his desperate last chance to strike on Kûrus. But his soldiers were starved, weak and without morals, the men of Kûrus were well fed and felt strong within their numbers.
56. So it came to the first battle of Babylon, it was the year when Solon died [553 BC]. There is no existing account of the battle, the only thing that is sure that the Babylonians lost. The king fled in disgrace from the field, hunted by the persian riders.
57. Nabu-na'id made it back to the city, but the will of the people had turned against him. As the ruler rules over a people so they can be happy, the unhappy people will take this position away from the ruler as they please. This is the reason why Nabu-na'id was slain by his once loyal people.



The Nabu-na'id flees from the Persian army - Oil painting by Marcell Mardot, Louvre, Paris

Continuing “Life and Death of Kûrus”

We are happy to have the account of Demostenes, even though his rhetoric on the assassination of the Babylonian king is strongely influenced by his democratic ideals. It is more likely though that the king was slain by his own guards, ordered by the remaining city council[56]. The walls of Babylon alone were not enough to stop the Persian king, so the city council opened their gates and hailed them their new leader.


King Kûrus entering the city of Babylon

The ancient metropolis of Babylon was now the biggest city in the young Persian empire. Even though the king had to deal with minor unrest the following months he seemed to win the hearts and minds of the citizens by his policy of tolerance. He released the remaining Jewish slaves to their freedom and let them choose wether they wanted to go home back to their kingdoms or stay in the city. Kûrus was a pious man who believed in religion to serve mankind for the greater good [57], but he also reduced squalor and mischief by this rather unexpected move.


Reconstruction of Babylon. Note that the defences of Babylon are on of the best in the world of their time.

But the capturing of the city of Babylon was not the end for the Babylonian empire. In the east, as mentioned before, was still a large Babylonian army, and the commanders were both sons of Nabu-na'id. His oldest son, Mandaru, was now the new king of Babylon and determined to retake the city. He sent envoys to the kingdom of Media, who agreed to send troops to aid Mandaru, since they grew suspicious about the Persians[58].


Mandaru gathering in the east to march on Babylon

It was now clear that the toughest battle for Kûrus was yet to come. With a huge Babylonian army coming from the Egyptian campaigns and support coming from the Medians in the north, all the sudden Kûrus found himself in a difficult and dangerous position. All he could do was to get his army ready to fight once more...

[Fixiwee]

"Do not throw the arrow which will return against you."
- Kurdish Proverb

Battles of history with Patrick Goodwin
Second battle at Babylon 552 BC

[Army camp in a valley. The vegetation is green and a lot of flowers can be seen. Two Babylonian soldiers stand guard at the Kings tent.]








King Mandaru [speaking to his half-brother Puzur-Ashur]: We should not make the same mistake as our father - we are not allowed to underestimate the Persians. They may seem like idiotic primitive hillman to our soldiers, but their king is one hell of a man.
Puzur-Ashur: So what do you propose then? The priests said that the oracles are not good.
King Mandaru: Screw those holy man!
Puzur-Ashur: Brother, watch your tone. I already told you seven thousand times not to mock the priests. Those omens are important to the men. You know they wont fight with the omens.
King Mandaru: I am sorry my brother. You are right, I'm just worried. We should hope that the Gods are on our side. But on the other hand, we need to continue moving. Babylon is rightfully ours, and without it no one will take my title as king serious. So we just continue to march on Babylon, with prayers in our heart and maybe the Gods will show us a path.

Goodwin: The year is 552 BC and King Kûrus had taken the capital of the Babylonian empire. But the Babylonians are not willing to go down without a fight. The two brothers Mandaru and Puzur-Ashur swore to revenge the death of their father and started to move their forces stationed at the border to Egypt in the direction of Babylon. The Persian king Kûrus was not idling in the meantime. He was aware of Mandarus plans and mustered his forces filling his ranks with new recruited Babylonians willing to fight for their new master. The Persian army was about to become the first multi ethnical army of the world. Kûrus moved the main body of his army a few days to the north, letting Kurus and his brother march onto Babylon. When the two brothers reached the city they found it half empty and no Persian army opened the gates to meet the Babylonians in battle.

[King Kûrus standing under a Cypress tree instructing his generals.]
King Kûrus: ...with that being the main objective. So we absolutely need the help from Dâdarsi and his troops we left behind in the city. Without them Mandarus army is superior in numbers. I will send one of my best mans to sneak into the city and tell Dâdarsi when to attack. Let us pray to Auramazdā that the messenger wont get caught.
Scarred General: What are we going to do against the chariots hand heavy armored infantry. We have nothing like that?
King Kûrus: Our archers will do the job. Our arrows can penetrate any armor. If Mandaras is clever, he will try to get us in hand to hand combat as soon as possible, so he wont lose too many of his soldiers standing on the field. And the problem is, Manduras is a sharp man, so we need to use our riders to engage and drag him into skirmishes to occupy his troops.


So it happened that the Persians where facing the Babylonians once again in battle. The armies had chosen a piece of land with enough space to maneuver. The Babylonians would try to use their chariots to frighten and rout the enemy, while the Persians would once again use their superior bowmen to inflict heavy casualties before the Babylonian Infantry would reach their line.






King Mandaru: Allright men. Do as we told you and you will live to see the night. Be sure to follow your officers, remember, we are trying to break their lines. So we do not attack until we found a weak spot that we can exploit. [to his half-brother] So lets revenge the death of our father.





As Kûrus feared, the Babylonian army is moving with great speed towards the line. They are trying to shock them into making a mistake, but Kûrus orders his man to hold the line at all cost.





Kûrus sends his skirmishers out off the flanks to harras the enemy to stop them from advancing too fast.





Rider: Keep your distance men! Keep your distance! Men! Stop! We need to keep the distance, we are...
[Arrors and spears start to rain on the Persian riders. Men get killed and fall of the hourses]

Rider: Damn! Retreat men. Retreat. There's too many of them.





The Babylonians win the first move by routing the Persian Riders. Those are the Riders that caused massive panic to the Babylonians at the Battle of Susim.



Persian elite soldiers waiting for the enemy.

But Kûrus remains calm and orders his archers to start firing on the enemy. His archers are far more experienced and are able to shoot from a greater distance then the Babylonian archers.


Puzur-Ashur [to his chariot soldiers]: This is the time for the maneuver, we need to flank them and kill the archers. For ...
[An arrow hits Puzur-Ashur in the face. There is little blood at first, but he imidiatley falls from his moving royal chariot. Puzur-Ashur is dead.]

Once again arrows rain down from the sky like a massive thunderstorm. And for some reason the Babylonians are not trying to confront the Persians. They are still waiting for the Persians to charge and make a mistake.




Babylonian archers and riders being slaughtered.


King Mandaru: What is he doing? Why is that fool of an ape not attacking? He is getting slaughtered out there. Prepare the man to charge.

Kûrus is ordering his man to wait for another wave of arrows from his man and orders them to move. Mandarus men are already weakend by a great deal.




The Persian army start a full charge attack on the Babylonians.


Running soldier: Chaaaaaaaaaaarge.





Mandarus is unlucky. Kûrus does not make any major mistake, he charges without a flaws in his formation.





A fierce and bloody hand to hand battle starts. The Persians are facing experienced heavy armored infantry in scale mail.





But Kûrus knows exactly what to do. He stands close to his troops and gives orderes where ever he can.





Casualties are high on both sides so far. The Persian riders are unable to break the will of the Babylonians, and their heavy infrantry is able to hold the line for now.





The battle goes on for several hours and the Babylonians are loosing more and more man. A Persian victory is at hand. As the Persian army is butchering their way through the enemy lines Mandaru realizes that he is unable to win this battle. He sounds for a retreat.





Officer: My king. The enemey gave the sign for retreat. What are your orders?
King Kûrus: Let them run, I'll finish Mandaru off another day. Our forces are weakend and exhausted too, we don't have enough men to chase them.
Officer: Yes my king!





Kûrus defeated the Babylonian army once again. If the historic sources are correct, Kûrus was even able to kill thrice as many men as Mandaru. For the next months Persian influence would spread over the Babylonian empire. But as long as Mandaru lived Kûrus was not be able to conquere the empire as a whole.


Second battle at Babylon:

Persians:
Soldiers: 24.000 - Lost: 6.000


Babylonians:
Soldiers: 26.000 - Lost: 18.000

[Fixiwee]

"True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read."
- Pliny the Elder

King Kûrus chasing King Mandaru

“Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris

After the victory at Babylon in 552 BC Kûrus gained influence over the city of Hira and the oldest city Ur. Since most parts of Vindaras account for the next decade is forever lost we only have Demostenes account on what happened after the splendid victory. It seems that King Mandaru fled to the southern border of his empire to muster new forces, hoping that the Persian king would run out of manpower. In 549 BC the forces met again, Kûrus son and heir Kambûjiya was leading the attack. Demostenes states that he does not know what exactly happened at the battle, only that King Mandaru was killed in battle. From that moment on, Kûrus had annhilated the royal family. But that was not the end to the wars, far from it. Demonstenes tells us: "From what I reconstruct the Medians became the new enemy for Kûrus. Fearing the new powerful empire they waged a bloody and heavy war on the Persian border."

Who was François Sargot again?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

François Sargot (1804-1886) was a french historian specialist on the ancient eastern empires. His book “Iranian empires” covers the rise and decline of the variousPersian empires. His significance in his work was that he took a close look on the economical data. Having traveled the regions many times during his life he has a deep insight on the local areas.

François Sargot

Persian Archers firing arrows at the advencing Medians during a skirmish at the Median-Persian border.

But Kûrus was not idle. His armies were ever growing and he forced a Median royal Army under the command of the corrupt Gaumâta at the Nabalim fields north of Babylon. Once again Kûrus won, by now his armies were experienced and battlescarred.


Persia in 553 BC


Persia in 544 BC. Note that the cross symbolizes Babylon and the yellow arrorws Kûrus expansion over the remaining Neo-Babylonian empire. The median attacks on the Persian homeland are coloured in orange.

Demostenens of Ancyle – History of the greeks
(written at about 420-400 BC)
From book V:
[...]
72. The Babylonians had no one to claime the throne of Babylon, but a Noble from Damaskos named Hana did not acknowledge Kûrus as the new king of Babylon. It is said that Kûrus was furious when he heard about Hana and gathered his best man to march towards Damaskos, even though that meant that his forces fighting the Medians were dangerously weakend. Kûrus came to the city of Nisibis, somewhat north of Damaskos and established his forces there, planing his campaign in the Levant. Hana still had a large forces in Damaskos, but the Persian king was not without luck. An emissary from the city of Hierosolýmōn [Jerusalem] arrived in the winter of 544 BC. Kûrus had released the Jewish slaves in the city of Babylon when he conquered it, now the Jews were about to repay their deed, because it said that the Jews do not forget kind deeds to their kin easily. They started to rebel against Hana and refused to serve in his army, in return they would accept Persian nominal rule.
73. Hana met Kûrus in Battle nonetheless. I have serious doubts that Kûrus killed 20.000 enemy Babylonians as Vidarna says in his books, from what I can tell it was more likely to be half of it. There are no numbers about how many people Kûrus lost, but by now he was such a brilliant and excellent military leader that it must have been very few. To this date female singers sing songs about the heroic victory of Damaskos, and it was this battle that made Kûrus a living legend.

Who was Demonstenes again?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Demonstenes of Ancyle is one of the fathers of history-writing. His work on the history of the Greeks is on of the primary sources of the ancient times. His critical views, even to his own people (the Athens) served as the main foundation to later historians. His works will continue to come up in the later periodes.

“Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris
Chapter: Battle of Damaskos 553 BC, page 95




The Battle of Damaskus was a genuine victory for Kûrus. He used his archers on the left flank to lure Hanas chariots and drag them into skirmishes. That way he separated the chariots from the main body of Hanas army, being able to engage the infantry, encircle them over the right flank and crush them completely.


Kûrus, who is said to never had any fears during battle charged his man himself during the encirclement of the Babylonian army. This caused much fear under the enemy army, because they have never seen a King so bold and brave.



Hama did the mistake of not charging into Kûrus archers and return to aid the infantry. Overall Hanas action on the battlefield show that he was not used to combat tactics making it easy for Kûrus to crush him.



The battle of Damaskus in 543 BC made the Persian empire the biggest empire to date. Kûrus gained Damaskus and influence over the old Jewish kingdoms. Only a few Neo-Babylonian cities still resisted, but it was only a matter of time until they would subdue to the will of Kûrus - King of the Persia and King of Babylon.

[Fixiwee]

On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.
-Chuck Palahniuk

Death of Kûrus

Excerpt from “Life and Death of Kûrus” by Professor James Marshal, 1994 Chicago
With Damaskus in his hand Kûrus gained the Levant, thus enabling him sea trade in the Mediterranean. Sidon and Jerusalem acknowledged the Persian Empire and subdued to Kûrus. The next couple of years Kûrus spent his time quelling the last resisting cities that once belonged to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. During that time Darayawus, one of his best generals, started an attack on the Median empire. After some victories he got terribly beaten and killed by the Medians in 539BC, which ended the first try to expand into the Median territory[13]. Following defeat the Medians started invading the Persian Empire at Susim and Babylon. Kambûjiya, Kûrus' son, who was in command over Babylon would spent all his power to repel the Medians.


Who is James Marshal again?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

James Marshal is currently a professor at the University of Chicago. He is one of the most renown historians on the Babylonian and Persian empire.

Vidarna – History of Parsa (real title of the book is unknown)
(written at about 530-500 BC)

Book IX
[...]
7. It was the end of the Persian year and mighty and divine king Kûrus was spending the days at the city of Sidon. There he oversaw the rebuilding of the old Phoenician towns. He loved to spent his days at Sidon because Kûrus loved the sea and the fresh air. He was now 63 years old and yet he was of astounding health, he rode his beloved horse every day for hunting and spent an hour swimming because it made him healthy. But at the end of the year he suddenly fell terribly ill. His doctors came and did what they could. But Kûrus knew his time was coming. He said: "Auramazdā is calling me. Do not dwell on my death for I have lived long and accomplished much. I have done many good things and this is my our beloved god who made me strong and healthy is giving me a death without much suffering." He sent his doctors away, spoke to his generals and told them to aid his son in his upcoming rule. The next morning he passed away in peace, for Kûrus has reigned in the name of peace and brought it to those who wished him ill.



Cont. Excerpt from “Life and Death of Kûrus” by Professor James Marshal, 1994 Chicago

Kûrus had laid down the foundation to the Persian Empire. In 20 years he had fought and destroyed the whole Neo-Babylonian empire. His reign went over to his son without any internal troubles. Nevertheless the new King Kambûjiya faced a difficult situation for Demonsthenes tells us that the Empire was attacked on several fronts by the Medians.
With Kûrus not only a mighty military leader died, but also the historic written sources disappeared. Demonsthenes is the only source who retells parts of the Persian history after Kûrus and he leaves out certain years. The conquest of Media by the Persians remains obscure and only vague details can be reconstructed.

Over all Kûrus was a potent military genius. I have tried to draw certain lines between Alexander and him in this book because one gave birth to the Persian empire in a few years and the other one destroyed it fulminatly. Nevertheless Kûrus was not Alexander. Kûrus led simple warriors to conquered a professional army, while Alexander already had a professional army. But Kûrus was not without flaws. As Sargot demonstrated in his works, Kûrus was financial inapt, his empire was not structured well and he lost much money due to corruption and weak taxation. It took his son to reform the system.
All in all Kûrus was a devout man who believed in his own principles. His liberal ideas, like freeing the Jews from the Babylonians, made Sargot give him the title of the "first humanist of the world". I couldn't agree more.


Tomb of Kûrus, Iran

[Aemilius Paulus]

Wow. Brilliant AAR. Only one thing though: can you add more screenshots? Rise of Persia mod is quite interesting, and I would like to see more of it. Not to mention, I like screenie-heavy AARs.

[Fixiwee]

Wow. Brilliant AAR. Only one thing though: can you add more screenshots? Rise of Persia mod is quite interesting, and I would like to see more of it. Not to mention, I like screenie-heavy AARs.

The next update will be rather short and will only have a few screenshot. It will be about a part of the Persian history that remains a bit dark because of the lack of sources. This is intended since I planed to add a dark period from the start.

The update after that will be a "battles of history" update and will have more pictures.

[Monk]

Wow. Brilliant AAR. Only one thing though: can you add more screenshots? Rise of Persia mod is quite interesting, and I would like to see more of it. Not to mention, I like screenie-heavy AARs.

Actually I believe the amount of text and the number of screenshots work well at their current levels. So far the AAR has turned out well thanks in part to that, and i can't wait to see what happens next. Though I wouldn't mind seeing more screenies i agree, this mod looks fantastic.

[Fixiwee]

You can't pick up two melons with one hand.
Eastern Proverb

Campaign against Media

“Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris

The death of Kûrus saw no change in the Persian Expansion. During his campaign against the Levant, his son and heir Kumbûjya gathered troops in Persia and Babylon to start a campaign against the Median empire. When Kûrus died, Kumbûjiya became King without any troubles and was ready to lead his armies into Media.
But who was Kumbûjiya? Our only source for him is the Greek historian Menesthenes, who certainly did not read any Persian sources, but only Egyptian ones a century later. His account is somewhat biased on Persian cliches that the Greeks had, like for example the story of his deeds as a Persian warrior. Nevertheless we do get the picture that Kumbûjya was a smart man and brilliant military leader. It is important to note that he officially had two courts. One in Persepolis, the old capital, and a new one in Babylon. He decentralized the Persian empire, made it financially and militarily more flexible. In 535 BC his army were ready to march against Media.


Kumbûjiya laying siege and conquering the Median border city Bagastana in 535 BC

"Tales of History" by Menesthenes
(written about 450 BC)

King Kumbûjiya brought his two armies, one from Persepolis, one from Babylon together at the city of Susim. It was one of the biggest armies of the time, so big that the people of Susim had to live in ration for 2 years to have all the soldiers fed when they came; and a whole forest at Persepolis had to be cut down to supply all the thousand archers with arrows. But the King was an able man, even more then his famous father, he had managed to gather a large force to unleash against the most hated enemy of the Persians: The Medians.
Tales of this campaign are told up to the Egyptian part of the Persian empire to this date, for the battles were numerous and very tough. The Medians were a fine enemy indeed, since they inflicted one or two terrible losses to Kumbûjiya. It is told that even in a battle that he was about to lose he and five of his best Riders would charge against a group of Median spearmen to help a few of his own soldiers from encirclement. When asked why he would so such brave deeds he would say: "I am a soldier first, a man second. My soldiers are brothers and sons to me." Five years later king Kumbûjiya would face the Median king Uvaxstra, yet another warrior king of the east and defeat him and his empire. Uvaxstra was said to fled to the far east and never heard of again, the rest of the Medians surrendered to the mighty Persian king.

Who was Menesthenes?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Menesthenes was a Greek philosopher and historian who lived on the island of Kos. He was the very first man to write down a universal history of mankind. Only the Tales of history survived to the modern days but the book is written mostly from his point of view. His work is the only source for many ancient events which make it difficult or nigh impossible to read them from a critical point of view. Without the Tales of history though we would know nearly nothing about certain periods so it indisputably remains an important historic source.

The Medians and the Persians had fierce and terrible battles during the Median Campaign. The Persian-border wars that precieded the Median campaign saw terrible losses at both sides and enchaned the brutality to the war.

Cont. “Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris

The war was fierce but short. Most of the battles probably took place in the Bagastana dale, eventually leading to the defeat of the Median king. By 532 BC Kumbûjiya had defeated the Medians and occupied most of their country, though it took him untill 530 BC to gain all the remaining Median eras. But in 531 a new conflict had broken out. The reasons for this remain totally obscure to us, all we know is that Kumbûjiyas brother invaded the Lydian-Ionian country in Anatolia.



The persian Empire in 532 BC. The southern concquest of Sinai happened during ~536 BC. The Median campaign can be seen as northern line against the green Median realm. The white nation is the Lydian-Ionian nation that gained influence among the Phonician people of the Levant. This is desputed among modern historians though. (The weird cursor was not edited out by a confused intern as it should have.)