02-13-2012, 07:54 PM
Quote:Roach, the few ancient references that I have seen suggest that the Greeks and Romans considered one noncombatant per soldier an unusually high ratio. Defining "noncombatant" is always complicated; Xenophon wasn't on Cyrus' muster roll, but he brought arms and horses and tried to make himself useful.
Well, Greeks usually brought one slave/serveant each, although the Spartans brought seven... But yeah, those served as psiloi if needed. Romans did away with the camp trail, IIRC - Marius did it first, and his legions got the nickname "Marius' mules" for carrying everything themselves.
@Macedon Just to clear some stuff up, the elite of Cyrus' force was not the Greeks. The most elite troops by far were his bodyguard of 600 armored cavalry. And they were more successful than the hoplites for sure*.
*The hoplites allegedly routed the imperial left... With their mere appearance. What I see as more likely is the left simply retreating - they didn't even loose a shaft at the hoplites, and neither did the cavalry of Tissaphernes even try to engage them.
