Cyropolis
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Cyropolis (Latin form of Gr. Kyroúpolis (Κυρούπολις) literally "The City of Cyrus") was an ancient city founded by Cyrus the Great in 544 BCE to mark the northeastern border of his Achaemenid empire. It is identified with the medieval and modern city of Khujand in northern Tajikistan.
Contents
Variants
- Cyropolis (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 206, 208, 209.)
Location
There appear to be a number of alternative locations for this city:
- One alternative reports that: Today the city is named Kurkad, the New Persian continuation of Old Persian Kurush Katha.
- The article on the river Syr Darya, states that Cyropolis is the same place as Alexandria Eschate, and that the present day location of both is the modern day city of Istaravshan.
- The location of the city as approximately 40°N 69°E. This is the location of the present day city of Istaravshan, a place of human settlement of great antiquity. The degree of confidence which can be placed in the map can be judged from the position it gives for the city of Bactra (approximately 37°N 67°E), which corresponds very closely with the actual location of Bactra/Balkh (viz. 36°46′23″N 66°52′25″E).
History
Cyropolis was the largest of seven towns in the region that Alexander the Great targeted for conquest in 329 B.C. His goal was the conquest of Sogdiana. Alexander first sent Craterus to Cyropolis, the largest of the towns holding Sogdiana against Alexander's forces. Craterus' instructions were to "take up a position close to the town, surround it with a ditch and stockade, and then assemble such siege engines as might suit his purpose...." The idea was to keep the inhabitants focused on their own defenses and to prevent them from sending assistance out to the other towns. Starting from Gazza, Alexander went on to conquer the other surrounding towns. Five of the seven towns were taken in two days. Many of the inhabitants were killed. Alexander then arrived at Cyropolis, which was the best fortified of the towns and had the largest population. It also had reputedly the best fighters of the region. Alexander battered Cyropolis' defenses with the siege engines. While the bombardment went on, Alexander ordered certain of his troops to sneak through a dried-up water course that went under the town's wall. Alexander also joined on this mission and once inside his troops opened the town's gate to admit his attacking force. Once the natives saw that the town was taken, they fell violently upon the attackers. Alexander received a violent blow from a stone that landed upon his head and neck. Craterus was wounded by an arrow. But the defenders were driven off. Arrian puts the defender's force at about 15,000 fighting men and claims that 8,000 of them were killed in the first phase of the operation. The rest apparently sought refuge inside the town's central fortress, but surrendered after one day for lack of water. [1]
Accounts of how the battle went down differ among authors. Arrian cites Ptolemy as saying Cyropolis surrendered from the start, and Arrian also states that according to Aristobulus the place was stormed and everyone was massacred. [2]
Ch.3: Storming of Cyropolis.— Revolt of the Scythians
Arrian[3] writes.....Having thus captured the five cities and reduced them to slavery in two days,[1] he went to Cyropolis, the largest city in the country. It was fortified with a wall higher than those of the others, as it had been founded by Cyrus. The majority of the barbarians of this district, and at the same time the most warlike of them, had fled for refuge thither, and consequently it was not possible for the Macedonians to capture it so easily at the first assault. Wherefore Alexander brought his military engines up to the wall with the determination of battering it down in this way, and of making assaults wherever breaches might be made in it. When he observed that the channel of the river, which flows through the city when it is swollen by the winter rains, was at that time nearly dry and did not reach up to the wall, and would thus afford his soldiers a passage by which to penetrate into the city, he took the body-guards, the shield-bearing guards, the, archers, and Agrianians, and made his way secretly into the city along the channel, at first with a few men, while the barbarians had turned their attention towards the military engines and those who were assailing them in that quarter. Having from within broken open the gates which were opposite this position, he gave an easy admittance to the rest of his soldiers. Then the barbarians, though they perceived that their city was already in the hands of the enemy, nevertheless turned against Alexander and his men and made a desperate assault upon them, in which Alexander himself received a violent blow on the head and neck with a stone, and Craterus was wounded with an arrow, as were also many other officers. Notwithstanding this, however, they drove the barbarians out of the market-place. Meantime, those who had made the assault upon the wall, took it, as it was now void of defenders. In the first capture of the city about 8,000 of the enemy were killed. The rest fled for refuge into the citadel; for 15,000 warriors in all had gathered together in the city. Alexander encamped around these and besieged them for one day,[2] and then they surrendered through lack of water. The seventh city he took at the first assault. Ptolemy says that the men in it surrendered; but Aristobulus asserts that this city was also taken by storm, and that he slew all who were captured therein. Ptolemy also says that he distributed the men among the army and ordered that they should be kept guarded in chains until he should depart from the country, so that none of those who had effected the revolt should be left behind. Meantime an army of the Asiatic Scythians arrived at the bank of the river Tanais, because most of them had heard that some of the barbarians on the opposite side of the river had revolted from Alexander. They intended to attack the Macedonians, if any revolutionary movement worthy of consideration were effected. News was also brought that Spitamenes was besieging the men who had been left in the citadel at Maracanda. Against him Alexander then despatched Andromachus, Menedemus, and Caranus with sixty of the Companion cavalry, 800 of the mercenary cavalry under the command of Caranus, and 1,500 mercenary infantry. Over them he placed Pharnuches the interpreter, who, though by birth a Lycian, was skilled in the language of the barbarians of this country, and in other respects appeared clever in dealing with them.
1. δυσί was not used in Attic Greek, or but seldom. It became common after the time of Alexander.
2.Instead of ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ, Siutenis reads ἡμέραν μίαν.
References
- ↑ Arrian (1971). The Campaigns of Alexander. London: Penguin Books. p. 204. ISBN 0-14-044253-7.
- ↑ Arrian (1971). The Campaigns of Alexander. London: Penguin Books. p. 204. ISBN 0-14-044253-7.
- ↑ The Anabasis of Alexander/4a, Ch.3