One is yet another Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, when telling of the preparations made by the Persian monarch
Artaxerxes II toward subordinating Egypt: "The Persian army gathered at the city of Ake, numbering two hundred thousand barbarians led by Pharnabazus, and twenty thousand Greek mercenaries under the command of Iphicrates.
The dates of the texts range from the time of Esarhaddon to that of
Artaxerxes II. Of the 269 oath texts, fully 70% derive from the Persian period, with over half of those coming from the reign of Darius I.
Ctesias of Cnidus was a doctor to the Persian king
Artaxerxes II at the turn of the fourth century BCE.
The story is set at the height of the Persian Empire, and the Persians who populate it have a secure basis in Achaemenid history: King
Artaxerxes II (405-359 BCE) is the ruler who figures in Xenophon's Anabasis, whose brother, Cyrus the Younger, rebelled against him and lost his life at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BCE; he was the ruler whose health was cared for by Ctesias of Cindus, who worked as a royal physician at the Persian court.
The "Ten Thousand," a group of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger (King Darius II's son), attempt to wrest control of the throne of the Persian Empire from
Artaxerxes II. But after moving inland and fighting the Battle of Cunaxa, the Greek army, led by Xenophon, an officer and writer who accompanied the mercenaries and then recorded their trials in the famous work The Anabasis, finds itself stranded--and begins a dangerous journey through enemy territory in Kurdistan and the Armenian mountains during winter to return home by way of the Black Sea.
Lincoln's study climaxes in an infamous Greek account of torture at the Persian court, contextualized through Avestan texts and inscriptions of
Artaxerxes II (87-94).
Anabasis (Greek for "Uphill") is the most famous work of the Greek professional soldier and writer Xenophon who accompanied the Ten Thousand, a large army of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger, who intended to seize the throne of Persia from his brother,
Artaxerxes II. Though Cyrus's mixed army fought to a tactical victory at Cunaxa in Babylon (401 BC), Cyrus himself was killed in the battle, rendering the actions of the Greeks irrelevant.
(48) Democedes of Croton was personal physician to Darius I; Apollonides of Cos was the personal physician of Artaxerxes I; while Ctesias of Cnidos and Polycritos of Mende were the physicians of
Artaxerxes II (Dandamaev and Lukonin, 296).
war between Cyrus the Younger and
Artaxerxes II for the throne of Persia.
Not too long after starting out from Sardis, the Ten Thousand discovered that Cyrus really meant to use them to kill his brother King
Artaxerxes II and wrest away kingship of the vast Persian Empire.
Anabasis (in full Anabasis Kyrou; "Upcountry March") Prose narrative account by Xenophon of the experiences of the Greek mercenary soldiers who fought for Cyrus in his unsuccessful attempt to seize the Persian throne from his brother,
Artaxerxes II. It contains a famous account of the mercenaries' long trek ("the march of the 10,000") from near Babylon to the Euxine (Black Sea).