Persian Invasion of 480 BC - articles

[Aryaman2]

Now, the supply line system you mention sounds quite a bit like what Herodotus described, but somewhat reversed, sending supplies ahead instead of following. Xerxes was basically in friendly territory until Thermopylae don't forget. After one season in the area of Athens, maybe 60-70 miles inside of actual enemy territory, the army was in a starving condition as you may remember from other threads. That really gives the appearance of a cartoonishly oversized army. After all, it was assembled for theatre, not battle.

What more do you have to say about the supply line system? How exactly do we know it wasn't used in ancient times? Is it one of those 'absence of evidence being evidence of absence' things?

1) I don´t know if from reading Wikipedia article you realize that those armies were spread on a front of more than one thousand Kms, tracing their supplies from different lines.
2) Xerxes used the supply depots chain system, the same used by Alexander or by Edward I, and the one prefered by any general of those periods, the alternative being foraging. The system works only going through friendly territory, since depots have to be built in advance. The other shortcoming is that your route has to be prearranged.
Supply lines means to have a net of depots in your rear, all linked among them and to a head depot, that has to be always close to the marching army (5 to 7 journeys maxim). The system requires a lot more organizational skills and resources, especially transport assets, but in exhange provides 2 decissive advantages, a continuous flow of supply to the marching army in much larger quantity, making possible to sustain much larger field armies than before, especially in enemy territory, and a the option to select different invasion routes. The main problem of supply lines is that they are vulnerable to be cut, so armies tended to move more slowly.
Now, ask yourself, how was the US army moving into Baghdad being supplied? Did the US army stablished depots in advance? Since mid XVII century all western armies turned to supply lines and abandoned the old supply depots chain system.