What if the Ten Thousand conquered Persia?

[Axle]

I'm talking about this campaign here.
Ten thousand Greek mercenaries were hired by Cyrus the Younger, in an attempt to overthrow his brother to take over the Persian empire. Cyrus died in the first battle, which ultimately left Clearchus and the Ten Thousand stranded in Persian territory, before they took a long and grueling journey back to Greece.
If Cyrus survived and overthrew his brother in combat, possibly by killing his brother in the Battle of Cunaxa, could Cyrus have included more Greeks into the main Persian ranks, and thus kickstart an earlier Hellenistic age?

 

[Vinization]

Could Egypt retain its independence, which was crushed in 343 BC by Artaxerxes III, son of the same king who defeated Cyrus at Cunaxa?

Cyrus might be more focused on crushing any rebellions and usurpation attempts that could prevent him or his son/successor from reconquering Egypt.

 

[Axle]

Could Egypt retain its independence, which was crushed in 343 BC by Artaxerxes III, son of the same king who defeated Cyrus at Cunaxa?

Cyrus might be more focused on crushing any rebellions and usurpation attempts that could prevent him or his son/successor from reconquering Egypt.

This can be either a stronger Persia or weaker Persia, depending on policies and dynastic changes by Cyrus. This is somewhat of a challenge post too, but if Cyrus succeded by the backs of Greek hoplites, could he decide to implement more Greek units across all of Persia, therefore kickstarting a spread of Greek culture across Egypt and the middle East?

 

[Vinization]

This can be either a stronger Persia or weaker Persia, depending on policies and dynastic changes by Cyrus. This is somewhat of a challenge post too, but if Cyrus succeded by the backs of Greek hoplites, could he decide to implement more Greek units across all of Persia, therefore kickstarting a spread of Greek culture across Egypt and the middle East?

This time period is completely out of my league, so I'll only throw in an assumption: why wouldn't the Greeks just march back home after getting their pay, or mutiny and possibly even murder Cyrus in a coup if they don't get it for whatever reason?

If such a thing happens and Persia is left leaderless, the Egyptians might even take advantage of the situation and invade Palestine and Phoenicia like they tried to during the brief reign of pharaoh Teos/Tachos (361-59 B.C.).

 

[Avrorrange]

This time period is completely out of my league, so I'll only throw in an assumption: why wouldn't the Greeks just march back home after getting their pay, or mutiny and possibly even murder Cyrus in a coup if they don't get it for whatever reason?

If such a thing happens and Persia is left leaderless, the Egyptians might even take advantage of the situation and invade Palestine and Phoenicia like they tried to during the brief reign of pharaoh Teos/Tachos (361-59 B.C.).

Depends on what Cyrus has on offer. If I was Cyrus, I would have offered the Greeks land to settle down and integrate them into the ruling class. As an usurper, he would need followers he know he could trust, and no one better than the foreigners without official loyalty to any state who just helped him to the throne. Similarly, an offer like this isn’t something that could be bought with money back in Greece, so this should be a fairly enticing offer to the Greeks as well. One Roman army for example basically accepted such a deal in Ptolemaic Egypt and went native—to the point of fighting Rome when Caesar invaded.

 

[Axle]

This time period is completely out of my league, so I'll only throw in an assumption: why wouldn't the Greeks just march back home after getting their pay, or mutiny and possibly even murder Cyrus in a coup if they don't get it for whatever reason?

If such a thing happens and Persia is left leaderless, the Egyptians might even take advantage of the situation and invade Palestine and Phoenicia like they tried to during the brief reign of pharaoh Teos/Tachos (361-59 B.C.).

Actually, this can provide a great reasoning to keep the Greek mercenaries for even longer, and an excuse to bring more Greeks into Egypt. Cyrus could also reward Greeks willing to aid him by putting them in the noble classes of Egypt, and cement Greek involvement in Persian politics therafter. (This is all speculative of course, and Cyrus would have to be very supportive to Greeks at this point for this to happen)

@darthfanta
So in a way, all it might really take is a few Greek colonies/generals to support complete submission to the Persian empire? I can see Cyrus taking full advantage of this.

 

[wingren013]

You guys realized that a lot of Greeks were already subjects of the Achaemenid Empire right? It controlled half the Hellenic world.