Cunaxa
CUNAXA (Κουναξα, Plut. Artax. 100.8), the scene of the battle between Cyrus the Younger and the forces of his brother Artaxerxes, in which the former was overthrown and slain. Xenophon (Xen. Anab. 1.8) describes the battle fully, but does not mention the name of the place where it was fought. Plutarch, in his life of Artaxerxes, has alone preserved it, and states that it was 500 stadia from Babylon. There has been much discussion as to the exact position of the field of battle. Rennell (Illustr. of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, p. 93) has adopted the distance from Babylon as given by Plutarch, as that which on the whole appears to accord best with the previous narrative of Xenophon.
[V](Κούναξα). A small town in Babylonia, on the Euphrates, famous for the battle fought here between the younger Cyrus and his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon, in which the former was killed (B.C. 401). See Anabasis; Artaxerxes; Cyrus; Xenophon.