Battle of Thymbra
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| Battle of Thymbra | |||||||||
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| Part of the Wars of Cyrus the Great | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Lydian Empire, Egyptian mercenaries |
Achaemenid Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Croesus, unknown others |
Cyrus the Great, Harpagus, Abradates†, unknown others |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 100,000+ [1] 420,000, 300 chariots (Xenophon) 105,000 (Modern consensus) |
30,000 [2] to 50,000, [3] 196,000, 300 camel cavalry, 300 chariots, +siege towers (Xenophon) 49,000 (Modern consensus) |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Heavy | Minimal | ||||||||
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The Battle of Thymbra was the decisive battle in the war between Croesus of the Lydian Empire against Cyrus of Persia in the last weeks of 547 BC. Cyrus, having pursued Croesus into Lydia following the drawn Battle of Pteria, met the remains of Croesus' partly disbanded army in battle on the plain north of Sardis and utterly defeated it despite being militarily outnumbered more or less 3:1. This proved decisive, and after the 14 day Siege of Sardis, the city and possibly its king fell, therefore, in the end Lydia was conquered by the Persians.
[edit] The Battle
Cyrus defeated the Lydian cavalry because it said that the smell of the Cyrus dromedaries frightened the Lydian horses. After the battle all the Lydian lands were annexed by the Persian empire including the Greek cities in Asia Minor, which opened the rising conflict between Greece and Persia. According to the Greek author Herodotus, Croesus was treated well and in respect after the battle by Cyrus, but this is contradicted by the Nabonidus Chronicle [1], one of the Babylonian Chronicles (althougth if the text refers or not to Lydia is unclear).
[edit] References
- Paul K. Davis (1999). 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present. Santa Barbara, California. ISBN 1-57607-075-1.
- Alexander Campbell (1830). The Millennial Harbinger, Vol. I, No. IX.
- Dorling Kindersley (2005). Grant, R.G Battle, a Visual Journey Through 5000 Years of Combat pg 19. London, England.
[edit] External links
- Battle of Sardes Pictures
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