The Battle of Opis was the last major military engagement between the Achaemenid Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which took place in September 539 BC, 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, located north of the capital city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq, and resulted in a decisive victory for Persia. Shortly afterwards, the Babylonian city of Sippar surrendered to Persian forces, who then supposedly entered Babylon without facing any further resistance. The Persian king Cyrus the Great was subsequently proclaimed as the king of Babylonia and its subject territories, thus ending its independence and incorporating the entirety of the fallen Neo-Babylonian Empire into the greater Achaemenid Empire.
Location The battle took place in and around Opis, an ancient city situated on the Tigris River and located about north of Baghdad in modern-day Iraq. The city is thought to have been a preferred point to cross the Tigris; the classical Greek philosopher Xenophon describes a bridge at this point.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. Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, p. 362. Eisenbrauns, 2002. The timing of the Persian invasion may have been determined by the ebb of the Mesopotamian rivers, which are at their lowest levels—and therefore easier to cross—in early autumn.Tolini, Gauthier. "Quelques elements concernant la prise de Babylone par Cyrus." Note 3 of Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology, March 2005
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 the ancient city of Babylon that had been built several decades earlier by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. Control of Opis would have enabled the Persians to break through the Median Wall and open the road to the Babylonian capital.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.
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 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.Dandamaev, MA; Vogelsang, WJ (trans.). A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, pp. 41–42, 49. BRILL, 1989.
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.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.
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. The empire was previously an ally of Croesus of Lydia, whose kingdom was overrun by the Persians a few years prior to the invasion of Babylonia.Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, pp 40–43. Eisenbrauns, 2002.
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 economic problems 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 Mary Joan Winn Leith, "Cyrus's success is credited to military acumen, to judicious bribery, and to an energetic publicity campaign waged throughout Babylonia, which portrayed him as a lenient and religiously tolerant overlord." On the other hand, Max 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 a publicity campaign was in effect a means of permitting his reputation to precede his military campaign.Max Mallowan. Cyrus the Great. In Cambridge History of Iran (Volume 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp.392–419. 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.
Battle
The Nabonidus Chronicle records that the battle took place in the month of Tashritu (27 September–27 October) "at Opis on the [bank of the] Tigris".Grayson, A.K. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Locust Valley, NY: JJ Augustin, 1975. 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. Some assume that Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, was in command as his fate is unclear.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. Beaulieu considers it was Nabonidus at Opis, owing to his flight after the defeat of the "army of Akkad", which was under his command, as opposed to the "ummani matitan" (foreigners/mercenaries) with Belshazzar.Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556-539 B.C., p. 191. Yale University Press, 1990.
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 refer to a "massacre" of "the people of Akkad",Kuhrt, A. The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period, pp. 48–51. Routledge, 2007. though translators disagree on which side was responsibleA. 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. ). and who was killed – the population of Opis or the retreating Babylonian army.
In Pierre Briant's view, "This victory was followed by an immense haul of booty and the massacre of those who attempted to resist."(Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: History of Persian empire, Published by EISENBRAUNS, 2002) Andrew Robert Burn comments: "Indeed on one reading of the text, Akkad broke out into open revolt, and Nabonidus' last military achievement was slaughter of rebels."Andrew Robert Burn, "Persia and the Greeks", Published by Stanford University Press, 1984 Maria Brosius interprets the massacre as a punitive action, "mak[ing] an example of a city trying to resist the Persian army".Brosius, Maria. The Persians, p. 11. Routledge, 2006. . Cuyler Young comments on the Chronicle accounts: "This reference in the Chronicle suggests that the Persians captured intact the main camp of Nabonidus' army and that, as is so often the case, the real killing of the engagement came after the Babylonians had fallen prey to fear and panic and had retreated from the field."Contributor John Boardman, "The Cambridge ancient history" Edition: 2, illustrated, Published by Cambridge University Press, 1988, , Amélie Kuhrt comments that the references to a massacre and looting suggest that the battle was "probably a hard-won victory".Kuhrt, 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. W. G. Lambert argues a contrarian view that there was no massacre or slaughter at all.Wilfred G. Lambert has suggested that the relevant line of the Nabonidus Chronicle should be read as referring to the Babylonian army rather than the people of Opis, and that it reports a defeat rather than a massacre. See Lambert, Wilfred G., "Notes Brèves 14 – Cyrus defeat of Nabonidus", Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no. 1, 2007 (March).
The battle is 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.
Aftermath