Something that has to be pointed out is how good and predominant the Persian cavalry was: Cyrus invading force to Skithia was mostly made by cavalry. In Greece there was a mix of bad Persian Generals and questionable logistic choices which prevented the Persian army to work as intended. At Marathon, Mitliades apparently reckless choice to charge forward full speed from the hill paid somptiously saving the day, as the Persian were not allowed to disembarck their cavalry from the ships, leaving the Persian light Infantry, screening the landing force, to face the heavy Hoplites unsupported. Had the cavalry been allowed to deploy, the Greek would be forced to a defensive stance, and suffer the rain of arrows from the Persian line, without the help of the wall the Spartans had at the thermopiles. Finally, the broken terrain of Greece in general does not favour mobile forces, which led to the Hoplite tactic and agreed encounters at specific places by opposite armies. Alexander is the standard we use to measure the Persian Army on the mainland, but his army had been tuned like a fine instrument by Philip II, Alexander was a superior general, seizing initiative and Darius III a mediocre one in a good day, if a warrior at all. The Lydians had a very heavy infantry, well regarded and probably fighting in Greek style but Cyrus swiftly defeated Croesus armies without much effort.

Being outnumbered 100 to 1 doesn't matter as much if you're battling on terrain where they can only fight you 10 v 10 at a time.

@AncientHistoryGuy

Жыл бұрын

Truth

@kevinbihari

Жыл бұрын

Well, you still have to win every bout.

I would love to see a continuous series of videos talking about the evolution of ancient Greek Warfare I would also love to see a video on about Eastern Roman Warfare and their evolution in fighting style..

@AncientHistoryGuy

Жыл бұрын

On my Patreon i write a monthly magazine discussing just that! The next issue is a bit delayed because things are happening, but so far we've covered Classical Hoplite Warfare and Xenophon's reforms. Next issue will be on Iphikrates, and then the issue after that will be on the Spartan Hegemony :)

interesting and happy holiday bro

@AncientHistoryGuy

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! You too!

Loved the video

@AncientHistoryGuy

Жыл бұрын

thankyou!

@starkilr101

Жыл бұрын

@@AncientHistoryGuy you’re welcome

SO why they didn't? You failed to answer your own question. Instead talking about something different. And you are partially wrong there as well. They never adopted heavy infantry, neither armour or tactic. Yeah, they used Greek mercenaries, and they did some have extremely armoured cavalrymen even during the invasion of Greece (Marathon). But not infantry. There are different accounts about Kardakes regarding their combat performance (some saying they were mediocre), and equally about their equipment, in particular their shields ranged from the hoplon to the more traditional wicker shields. They were only more Hellenized under Seleucids. Also, Persia itself is not 'flat', most of their empire was actually quite rugged and mountainous - Asia Minor, parts of Levant etc.

@thenutella8846

9 ай бұрын

I know this is an old comment, but his video answered it well enough. The Persians didn't feel the need to fully develop heavy infantry warfare because they expected the greek and anatolian mercenaries to do that for them. And by most accounts it worked rather well. It's just that Alexander was that good of a general compared to the ones leading persia's armies. And Alexanders own army was already considered the one of the best in the world before his conquests even began. Another comment did a good job at explaining how persian tactics were just as much at fault at the battle of Thermopoli as their lack of heavy infantry, and how Cyrus the great won battles against the lydians even though their army structures and equipment was similar to the greeks. Also, I think he could have definitely worded it better when talking about the terrain of the Persian empire, but what he meant was that the important battles were going on in the flat lands. Most of the cities and bases of power that needed besieging were on flat lands, and not every defending army could just lure the Persians into a narrow mountain pass.

Amazing job man.... you said this really well... keep this up (not insulting your earlier work...

@AncientHistoryGuy

Жыл бұрын

Thankyou!

Wait until you get to the Savaran Riders of the Parthian Dynasty of the Shahdom.

@wankawanka3053

Жыл бұрын

I mean the greeks did beat the parthians as well during the reign of antiochus the Third until he lost to the romans it all went downhill after that plus the parthians were not persians

@mohammadoodaroon5568

Жыл бұрын

​@@wankawanka3053 Parthians, Persians and Medians are Iranians, you're right about the ruler's dynasties but they're still from the same family.

Pink pajama boys*

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