User:Ariobarza/Siege of Kapisa

The Siege of Kapisa took place during the rule of Cyrus the Great, the first emperor of Persia. Cyrus wanted to annex Gandhara. He stormed the city of Kapisa (modern Begram in Afghanistan). Then, in some way he managed to capture it. In vengeance for the ruthless resistance (which in that area was common at the time) he destroyed it, or as others suggest, might have burned it first. However, the greatly preserved ruins are still seen today. In the language of the historian who wrote this, it suggests Cyrus did not intend to completely destroy the city. In this case, it was most likely a great upsetting struggle worth being recorded in history. In this vague siege it is unknown how long it lasted, but it was either in 543 BC, in his eastern campaigns which he proposed to invade India, or in 533 BC, during his organization of the empire. In coming back from or starting it is not known, but likely in starting. Furthermore, evidence from his chronology shows the siege having a better chance of taking place in 543 BC. Its main source is the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.

Location
The Persian invaders of Gandhara were commanded by king Cyrus the Great. Although there is no source that describes this event, we may be confident that it happened, because king Darius the Great (522-486) mentions Gandhara as one of the countries he inherited when he became king (in the Behistun inscription). The capital of Gandhara was later called Kapisa. The city was strategically situated: it controlled the roads to the Etymandrus Valley, to the Cophen Valley and to the passes leading to Bactria. Its modern name is Begram and it lies 75 kilometers northeast of Kabul, near Chârikâr.

Background
Cyrus is known to have built first the "universal" empire, stretching from Greece to the Indus River. Both the Gandharans and Kambojas soon came under the rule of the Achaemenian Dynasty of Persia during the reign of Cyrus. The Gandhara and Kamboja had constituted the seventh satrapies (upper Indus) of the Achaemenid Empire. When the Achaemenids took control of this kingdom, Pushkarasakti, a contemporary of king Bimbisara of Magadha, was the king of Gandhara. He was engaged in a power struggle against the kingdoms of Avanti and Pandava.

Classical sources

 * Pliny, (Natural History), VI