10-19-2006, 02:24 PM
"The Persians may not have had a good feel for the capability of motivated heavy infantry, but they were quit good at logistics"
So good as to supply an army of 1.700.000 you mean?
"What substantial leap in technology was outside the Persians grasp that that suddenly occurred in the seventeenth century?"
It was outside XVI century European powers as well, and it was not just one new technology, but rather a combination of factors. We can appreciate it because we have accurate numbers for armies before and after that period, something we don´t have for ancient armies.
Why must a cavalry army be small? Well, here small is a relative term, small in comparison to infantry based armies of contemporary periods and similar technology. Persian horsemen were noblemen and their retainers, the upper class of its society. Besides a cavalry based army has higher logistic requirements logically.
The big problem with this campaign is that we have only the Greek version, it is like the Swiss wars findings that shocked Delbruck in his time, before historians had only the stories of poor brave swiss fighting for their freedom against the hordes of Charles the Bold, then the Burgundian archives were found and the truth revealed that the "Burgundian hordes" were in fact outnumbered by the Swiss. We are still waiting for the Persian side of the story.
So good as to supply an army of 1.700.000 you mean?
"What substantial leap in technology was outside the Persians grasp that that suddenly occurred in the seventeenth century?"
It was outside XVI century European powers as well, and it was not just one new technology, but rather a combination of factors. We can appreciate it because we have accurate numbers for armies before and after that period, something we don´t have for ancient armies.
Why must a cavalry army be small? Well, here small is a relative term, small in comparison to infantry based armies of contemporary periods and similar technology. Persian horsemen were noblemen and their retainers, the upper class of its society. Besides a cavalry based army has higher logistic requirements logically.
The big problem with this campaign is that we have only the Greek version, it is like the Swiss wars findings that shocked Delbruck in his time, before historians had only the stories of poor brave swiss fighting for their freedom against the hordes of Charles the Bold, then the Burgundian archives were found and the truth revealed that the "Burgundian hordes" were in fact outnumbered by the Swiss. We are still waiting for the Persian side of the story.
AKA Inaki
