The Immortals

[Duncan Head]

Well, I think that once the "Inmortals" name is discarded, the 10.000 goes equally away, as the number was made up to "explain" the name. In persian sources only units 1.000 strength are recorded and I think that is a more reasonable number for a Royal body guard.

I don't see that. If you reject Herodotos, it's not the number that goes away, it's simply the idea that they were always kept up to that exact strength: they're not called Immortals (in his version) because there were 10,000 of them but because there were always 10,000. The story would work just as well if they were always 5,000, or 1,000.

Besides, Xenophon (Kyropaidia VII.5.68) says Cyrus the Great "selected ten thousand spearmen from among them [the Persians], to keep guard round the palace, night and day, whenever he was at home, and to march beside him whenever he went abroad" - note the same number for the royal guard, but not called Immortals suggesting he may not be drawing on Herodotos.

And 10,000 is, I am informed, a common nominal strength for an army corps in earlier Near Eastern armies.