Battle of Opis 539 BC
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 539 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Iraq | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Cyrus the Great | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 33.1814, 44.7000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Opis (revision 1378908453), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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