Battle of Opis
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| Battle of Opis | |||||||||
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| Part of the Wars of Cyrus the Great | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Neo-Babylonian Empire | Achaemenid Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Belshazzar, unknown others |
Cyrus the Great, Gubaru, unknown others |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown, tens to hundreds of thousands of civilians? |
Light | ||||||||
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The Battle of Opis, was the second and final engagement, after the one which was somewhere in February, was between Cyrus the Great of Persia, and Nabonidus of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, even though his son fought it. As the gateway to the Babylonian heartland, Cyrus had to go through Opis and the Babylonian king, Nabonidus, knew it. In anticipation of Cyrus' arrival, Nabonidus had stationed the bulk of his army at Opis under the command of his son, Belshazzar, and had the bridge leading to Opis destroyed. So Cyrus built a pontoon bridge and, after crossing the river, laid siege to Opis' defensive "Median Walls." After a ferocious battle, the forces of Cyrus captured Opis. And in some accounts, he or Nabonidus slaughtered the people of Akkad for their confusing stance in the battle. As some historians say they were not sure who to fight, because Gubaru was tricking the Babylonians, it is likely they were confusingly killing troops from both sides of the battle.
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