04-23-2006, 09:43 PM
Sure, but Alexander and Caesar attempted fairly huge conquests with armies under 50,000 and later Medieval armies tend to be thought to be of similar proportions. It's in the nature of ancient and medieval writers to hugely exaggerate the numbers of their opponents to magnify the glory of their victories or explain the reasons for their defeat. Frankly, the demographics of ancient and medieval armies are a nightmare to deal with. Xerxes might have had a huge army in the hundreds of thousands, but more likely it was in the tens of thousands; how many tens? Who knows... There will always be proponents of both views.
25,000 combatants seems too small to me, but 100,000 combatants seems too big.
25,000 combatants seems too small to me, but 100,000 combatants seems too big.
It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one\'s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.
Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
