08-11-2019, 09:02 AM
Hi,
way back in the day I contributed to some threads on Xerxes' invasion of Greece, and why an army of 1,800,000 soldiers or 300,000 soldiers or 180,000 soldiers is up there with "and then Zeus smote them all with lightning for sacrilege" or "and when they saw the rightful king and his ten followers, everyone bowed down and deserted the pretender" in terms of believability. Quite a few people cite an English article by F. Maurice who believed up to 150,000 soldiers could have been fed and watered, but not many know a German article by Robert von Fischer who looked at the whole route and the whole description and decided that around 40,000 soldiers was most plausible. Like Maurice, he was a trained and experienced staff officer, and his assumptions about things like the amount of baggage are pretty close to the best guesses of people like Jonathan Roth for the Roman army (because, yes, these things vary! But they only vary so far, and its much easier to make an army bulkier or slower than a 1914 vintage army than to make it more compact and swift-marching).
I have a summary and translated excerpts on my site.
way back in the day I contributed to some threads on Xerxes' invasion of Greece, and why an army of 1,800,000 soldiers or 300,000 soldiers or 180,000 soldiers is up there with "and then Zeus smote them all with lightning for sacrilege" or "and when they saw the rightful king and his ten followers, everyone bowed down and deserted the pretender" in terms of believability. Quite a few people cite an English article by F. Maurice who believed up to 150,000 soldiers could have been fed and watered, but not many know a German article by Robert von Fischer who looked at the whole route and the whole description and decided that around 40,000 soldiers was most plausible. Like Maurice, he was a trained and experienced staff officer, and his assumptions about things like the amount of baggage are pretty close to the best guesses of people like Jonathan Roth for the Roman army (because, yes, these things vary! But they only vary so far, and its much easier to make an army bulkier or slower than a 1914 vintage army than to make it more compact and swift-marching).
I have a summary and translated excerpts on my site.
Nullis in verba
I have not checked this forum frequently since 2013, but I hope that these old posts have some value. I now have a blog on books, swords, and the curious things humans do with them.
I have not checked this forum frequently since 2013, but I hope that these old posts have some value. I now have a blog on books, swords, and the curious things humans do with them.
