Greatest Persian generals

01

Bagoas

A eunuch rose to command the Persian army, poisoned Artaxerxes III and Arses in succession, then met the same cup pressed to his own lips by Darius III. Power built on murder, ended by its mirror.

02

Tissaphernes

Tissaphernes invited ten thousand Greek mercenary officers to a feast, then had them seized and beheaded mid-meal — stranding the surviving rank-and-file 1,500 miles from home without leadership.

03

Bessus

Bessus killed Darius III with a javelin, stitched on the royal title 'Artaxerxes V,' and lasted two years before Alexander's men pinned him to a tree and sliced off his nose and ears.

04

Shahrbaraz

Shahrbaraz took Jerusalem in 614, hauled the True Cross to Ctesiphon, occupied Egypt — then murdered Emperor Khosrow II and ruled Persia for exactly 40 days before his own officers cut him down.

05

Cyrus the Younger

Cyrus the Younger paid 10,000 Greek soldiers to march 1,500 miles to overthrow his brother Artaxerxes II — then personally charged the royal bodyguard, took a javelin to the eye socket, and died instantly.

06

Surena

Surena annihilated seven Roman legions at Carrhae in 53 BC — 20,000 dead, 10,000 captured — then was executed by the Parthian king within the year, fame deemed more dangerous than Rome itself.

07

Chariots of Artaxerxes II

Artaxerxes II deployed scythed war chariots at Cunaxa in 401 BC — blades spinning at hub height — and they galloped clean through gaps in the Greek phalanx without touching a single soldier.

08

Rostam Farrokhzad

Rostam Farrokhzad held the Sasanian line at Qadisiyyah for four days in 636 AD; legend gives his sister armor and a horse when his corpse reached her — the last cavalry charge of Persian antiquity.

09

Bahram Chobin

Bahram Chobin killed the Turkic khagan Shaba in single combat in 589, returned a hero — then, stripped of rank by a jealous emperor, raised a rebellion and took the Persian throne with no Arsacid drop of blood.

10

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus conquered Lydia, Babylon, and Media within 20 years, freed 40,000 Jewish captives from Babylon by decree, and died fighting nomads — whose queen, Tomyris, allegedly dunked his severed head in blood.