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The Battle of Opis, fought in September 539 BC, was a major engagement between the armies of Persia under Cyrus the Great and the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nabonidus during the Persian invasion of Mesopotamia. At the time, Babylonia was the last major power in western Asia that was not yet under Persian control. The battle was fought in or near the strategic riverside city of Opis, north of the capital Babylon. It resulted in a decisive defeat for the Babylonians. A few days later, the city of Sippar surrendered to the Persians and Cyrus's forces entered Babylon apparently without a fight. Cyrus was subsequently proclaimed king of Babylonia and its subject territories, thus ending the independence of Babylon and incorporating the Babylonian Empire into the greater Persian Empire.

Location

The site of the battle was at the city of Opis on the river Tigris, located about 50 miles (80 km) north of modern Baghdad. The city is thought to have been a preferred point to cross the river; Xenophon describes a bridge there. The timing of the invasion may have been determined by the ebb of the Mesopotamian rivers, which are at their lowest levels - and therefore are easiest to cross - in the early autumn.

Opis was a place of considerable strategic importance; apart from the river crossing, it was at one end of the Median Wall, a fortified defensive barrier north of Babylon that had been built several decades earlier by Nebuchadnezzar II. The capture of Opis enabled Cyrus to break through the Median Wall and open the road to the capital.

Sources

The main contemporary source of information on Cyrus's Mesopotamian campaign of 539 BC is the Nabonidus Chronicle, one of a series of clay tablets collectively known as the Babylonian Chronicles that record the history of ancient Babylonia. Some additional detail is provided by one of the few documents to have survived from Cyrus's lifetime, the Cyrus Cylinder. Further information on Cyrus's campaign is provided by the considerably later ancient Greek writers Herodotus and Xenophon, though neither mention the battle at Opis and their accounts of the campaign differ considerably from the Persian and Babylonian sources. Most scholars prefer to use the Nabonidus Chronicle as the main source on the battle, as it is a contemporaneous source.

Although much of the Nabonidus Chronicle is fragmentary, the section relating to the last year of Nabonidus's reign - 539 BC - is mostly intact. It provides very little information about Cyrus's activities in the years immediately preceding the battle. The chronicler focuses on events of immediate relevance to Babylonia and its rulers, only occasionally records events outside Babylonia and does not provide much detail other than a bare outline of key incidents. There is almost no information for the period 547-539. Most of the chronicle's text for this period is illegible, making it impossible to assess the significance of the few words that can be read.

Background

At the time of the Battle of Opis, Persia was the leading power in the Near East. Its power had grown enormously under its king, Cyrus II, who had conquered a huge swathe of territory to create an empire that covered an area corresponding to the modern countries of Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. The only remaining significant unconquered power in the Near East was the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which controlled Mesopotamia and subject kingdoms such as Syria, Judea, Phoenicia and parts of Arabia. It had been closely linked with Cyrus's enemies elsewhere, having been a formal ally of Croesus of Lydia, whose kingdom had been overrun by the Persians a few years earlier.

By the time of the battle, Babylonia was in an unpromising geopolitical situation; the Persian empire bordered it to the north, east and west. It had also been suffering severe inflation exacerbated by plague and famine, and its king Nabonidus was said to be unpopular among many of his subjects for his unconventional religious policies. According to Winn Leith and Mary Joan, "Cyrus may have been able to take advantage of these weaknesses by a combination of military measures, bribery and propaganda that depicted him as a lenient and tolerant ruler" On the other hand, Max Von Mallowan notes: "Religious toleration was a remarkable feature of Persian rule and there is no question that Cyrus himself was a liberal-minded promoter of this humane and intelligent policy," and such "propaganda" was in effect a means of permitting his reputation to proceed his military campaign. Cyrus was said to have persuaded a Babylonian provincial governor named Gobryas (and a supposed Gadates) to defect to his side. Gutium, the territory governed by Gobryas, was a frontier region of considerable size and strategic importance, which Cyrus was said to have used as the starting point for his invasion.

The Nabonidus Chronicle records that prior to the battle, Nabonidus had ordered cult statues from outlying Babylonian cities to be brought into the capital, suggesting that the conflict had begun possibly in the winter of 540 BC. In a fragmentary section of the chronicle which is presumed to cover 540/39 BC, there is a possible reference to fighting, a mention of Ishtar and Uruk, and a possible reference to Persia. The Battle of Opis was thus probably only the final stage in an ongoing series of clashes between the two empires.

The battle

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The Nabonidus Chronicle records that the battle took place in the month of Tashritu (27 September-27 October) "at Opis on the Tigris." Very little is known about the events of the battle; the chronicle does not provide any details of the battle's course, the disposition of the forces on either side or the casualties inflicted. The Persian army under Cyrus fought "the army of Akkad" (meaning the Babylonians in general, not the city of that name). The identity of the Babylonian commander is not recorded in the chronicle but it has traditionally been assumed that Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, was in command. His fate is unclear and he may have been killed in the battle.

The outcome of the battle was clearly a Babylonian defeat, possibly a rout, as the defeated Babylonian army is not mentioned again in the chronicle. Following the battle the Persian forces "took plunder" from the defeated Babylonians. Most translations of the Chronicle also describe a massacre of "the people of Akkad", though translators disagree on which side was responsible and who was killed - the population of Opis or the retreating Babylonian army.

The battle and massacre are not mentioned in the inscription on the Cyrus cylinder, which portrays Cyrus as liberating Babylon peacefully and with the consent of its people. However, the battle demonstrates that the existing Babylonian regime actively resisted Cyrus's invasion of Mesopotamia. Simon J. Sherwin comments that the battle at Opis "gives the lie to the idea of Cyrus as a benign liberator" and suggests that the aim of the reported massacre was "to terrorize the population" to intimidate Sippar and Babylon into surrendering without resistance. Maria Brosius similarly interprets the massacre as a punitive action, "mak an example of a city trying to resist the Persian army". Amélie Kuhrt comments that the references to a massacre and looting suggest that the battle was "probably a hard-won victory."

Aftermath

The defeat at Opis appears to have ended any serious resistance to the Persian invasion. The Nabonidus Chronicle states that following the battle, "on the fourteenth day Sippar was captured without battle. Nabonidus fled." The chronicle's wording implies that Nabonidus was present in Sippar when the Persians arrived. Cyrus remained in Sippar, and "on the sixteenth day Ug/Gubaru, governor of Gutium, and the army of Cyrus without a battle entered Babylon." Nabonidus himself was captured shortly afterwards when he returned to Babylon. His ultimate fate is unclear, but according to the 3rd century BC Babylonian historian Berossus, Nabonidus was spared and he went into exile in Carmania, where he died years later. Persian troops took control of the city, though the Nabonidus Chronicle provides little detail of how this was done. The chronicle makes a point of noting the conquering army's protection of the city's most important temples and records that "Interruption of (rites/cults) in Esagila or the temples there was none, and no date was missed." Seventeen days later, on 29 October, Cyrus himself entered Babylon, where he was proclaimed king, issued royal proclaimations and appointed governors of his newly conquered realm.

Ancient Greek accounts of Cyrus's campaign and the fall of Babylon differ significantly from the cuneiform accounts preserved in the Nabonidus Chronicle and the Cyrus Cylinder, suggesting that the Greeks were drawing on - or perhaps inventing - different traditions about the conquest of Babylonia. The two ancient Greek sources for the campaign, Herodotus and Xenophon, present broadly similar versions of events. According to Herodotus, Cyrus marched to Babylon along the side of the Diyala river (past Opis, though the battle is not mentioned), where the Persians fought a battle with the Babylonians near the capital. Cyrus subsequently laid siege to Babylon, ordering his troops to dig a canal to drain off part of the Euphrates to enable his troops to penetrate the city through weak points in its defences. Xenophon provides a similar but more elaborate account, claiming that Cyrus dug a huge trench around the city to divert the Europhrates and make the river bed passable for the Persian army. Herodotus, Xenophon and the Biblical Book of Daniel all assert that the Babylonians were taken by surprise while celebrating a festival.

These accounts, written long after the Persian conquest, contradict many aspects of the contemporary cuneiform evidence, which does not mention any sieges, engineering works or battles near Babylon. Scholars are in general agreement that Herodotus's account is an invention, while Kuhrt comments that Xenophon's account in his Cyropedia is "virtually impossible to use ... as a strictly historical source" due to its literary form, as a moral treatise on Cyrus in the form of an historical novella. Paul-Alain Beaulieu suggests that the Greek accounts may constitute an aggregate of various folk tales and legends which came to be associated with the fall of Babylon." It is possible that the Greek accounts of the entry of Cyrus may have been confused with a later capture of Babylon by the Persian king Darius, whose army was led by a general also named Gobryas.

Historical assessment

The Babylonian defeat at Opis and the apparently unopposed Persian entry into Babylon ended the independence of Babylonia (although there were a number of unsuccessful revolts against later Persian rulers). That the Babylonian collapse was swift and apparently total is confirmed by the ancient accounts of Cyrus's campaign in Mesopotamia and corroborating evidence such as cuneiform inscriptions dating to shortly after the Persian conquest. A number of explanations have been advanced for the rapid collapse of the Babylonian state. The Cyrus cylinder and the roughly contemporary Verse Account of Nabonidus attribute Nabonidus's failure to the desire of the god Marduk to punish a regime that had opposed his will. The strongly anti-Nabonidus tone of these documents, which accused the former king of behaving capriciously and neglecting the worship of the gods, suggests that their authors - the Babylonian priestly elite - were alienated from Nabonidus and may have welcomed a Persian takeover. It is, however, unclear how widely the Persians were supported within Babylonia, as accounts of the invasion and Nabonidus's rule are coloured by Cyrus's subsequent propaganda.

Other writers have advanced a number of additional or alternative explanations for the Babylonian defeat. M. A. Dandamaev suggests variously that the regime suffered from a lack of allies; a lack of support among the general population; opposition from subject peoples such as the Jews, who may have seen the invading Persians as liberators; and the inability of the Babylonian forces to resist numerically superior and better equipped opponents.

References

1. Oppenheim, A.L. "The Babylonian Evidence of Achaemenian Rule in Mesopotamia", in The Cambridge History of Iran vol. 2, p. 539. Ilya Gershevitch (ed). Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521200911
2. Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, p. 362. Eisenbrauns, 2002. ISBN 1575061201
3. Tolini, Gauthier. "Quelques elements concernant la prise de Babylone par Cyrus." Note 3 of Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology, March 2005
4. T. Cutler Young, Jr., "The rise of the Persians to imperial power under Cyrus the Great", in The Cambridge Ancient History vol. 4, p. 39. John Boardman (ed). Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0521228042
5. ^ Dandamaev, MA; Vogelsang, WJ (trans.). A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, pp. 41-42, 49. BRILL, 1989. ISBN 9004091726
6. ^ Kuhrt, Amélie. "Babylonia from Cyrus to Xerxes", in The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol IV - Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean, pp. 112-138. Ed. John Boardman. Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0521228042
7. ^ Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, pp 40-43. Eisenbrauns, 2002. ISBN 1575061201
8. De Gobimeau, J.A. (1964). The Cambridge Ancient History: IV. The Persian Empire and the West (Edited by Bury, J.B., Cook, S.A., & Adcock, F.E.). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. In Gray, Chapter One: The Foundation and Extension of the Persian Empire , pp. 12-13
10. ^ Grayson, A.K. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Locust Valley, NY: JJ Augustin, 1975. ISBN 0802053157
11. Albertz, Rainer; Green, David (trans.). Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E., pp. 69-70. Society of Biblical Literature, 2003. ISBN 1589830555
12. ^ Kuhrt, A. The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period, pp. 48-51. Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0415436281
13. A. Leo Oppenheim attributes the blame to Nabonidus (see Oppenheim, A. Leo, in Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton University Press, 1950); other translators attribute the massacre to Cyrus (see e.g. Grayson; Brosius, Maria. The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I. LACTOR, 2000; Kuhrt, A. The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period, pp. 48-51. Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0415436281).
14. Lambert, William G. "Notes Brèves 14 - Cyrus defeat of Nabonidus", Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no. 1, 2007 (March)
15. Sherwin, Simon J. "Old Testament monotheism and Zoroastrian influence" The God of Israel: Studies of an Inimitable Deity, p. 123. Robert P. Gordon (ed). Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521873657
16. Brosius, Maria. The Persians, p. 11. Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0415320909.
17. Kurht, Amélie. "Usurpation, conquest and ceremonial: from Babylon to Persia." Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies, p. 48. David Cannadine, Simon Price (eds). Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0521428912
18. Vanderhooft, David. "Cyrus II, Liberator or Conqueror? Ancient Historiography concerning Cyrus in Babylon", in Lipschitz, Oded; Oeming, Manfred (eds.), Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period, pp. 351-372.
19. Leick, Gwendolyn. "Nabonidus". Who's who in the Ancient Near East, p. 112. Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0415132304
20. ^ Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556-539 B.C., p. 226. Yale University Press, 1990. ISBN 0300043147
21. Campbell, Duncan B.; Hook, Adam. Ancient Siege Warfare: Persians, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans 546-146 BC, p. 9. Osprey Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1841767700
22. Hogarth, David George; Driver, Samuel Rolles. Authority and Archaeology, Sacred and Profane, p. 202. Ayer Publishing, 1971. ISBN 0836957717
23. McIntosh, Jane. Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 113-14. ABC-CLIO, 2005. ISBN 1576079651

• Battles of Cyrus the Great
• 539 BC
• 6th century BC conflicts
• Battles involving the Achaemenid Empire