Warfare in Ancient Persia 550 BC–330 BC

“The Persian Empire was a creature of war.” It rose from the ashes of the Assyrian Empire, rapidly absorbed the Near East through violent conquest, and dominated the region until Alexander the Great destroyed it in the second half of the 4th century BC. At first, the Persians were part of the Median Empire, but in 550 BC, Cyrus the Great of the House of Achaemenes forcefully seized the throne, paving the way for the Achaemenid Dynasty, which would rule Persia for more than 200 years. The success of the Achaemenid Empire was largely due to its vast, effective, and well-organized, military force. At the head of this force marched the infamous immortals—the Persian elite heavy infantry. The Achaemenids were the first to make the cavalry their central striking force, rely on large-scale naval warfare, and use size to guarantee success. But what exactly did their armies look like and how did they fight? Those questions puzzle historians to this day. In this video, we’ll explore what we actually know about the armies of the Achaemenid Empire, including how they fought and what was the key to their success.

Some must read mlitary history books:

Bibliography
Archer, Christon I./Ferris, John R./Herwig, Holger H./Travers, Timothy H. E., World History of Warfare, Lincoln 2002
Briant, Pierre, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, Winona Lake 2002.
Ferril, Arther, The Origins of War. From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great, Boulder 1997.
Hassan, Christopher, Structure of the Army and Logistics, in: in: Jacobs, Bruno / Rollinger, Robert (Eds), Blackwell Companion to the Achaemenid Empire, p. 1151-1160.
Konijnendijk, Roel, Legitimization of War, in: Jacobs, Bruno / Rollinger, Robert (Eds), Blackwell Companion to the Achaemenid Empire, p. 1141-1150.
Tuplin, Christopher / Jacobs, Bruno, Military Organization and Equipment, in: Jacobs, Bruno / Rollinger, Robert (Eds), Blackwell Companion to the Achaemenid Empire, p. 1161-1182.
Tuplin, Christopher, Mercenaries, in: Blackwell Companion to the Achaemenid Empire, p. 1183-1198.

[VojislavMoranic]

Im always in awe on how such ancient empires handled logistics.
You had to first send a messenger to for example Bactria, then have them send messengers to call up their soldiers and organize a supply train and then they would have to go and find the main army that was campaigning who knows where in Anatolia or Levant.

Like i always think how did they manage basic stuff like water on the road so they dont die of dysentery. The extreme change of temperatures going from mountains to plains or seaside.
How they handled their clothes, shoes, food, food for their animals.
How the cities and villages along their route helped or traded with them? Did they sometimes try to price gauge the traveling soldiers? Did the soldiers sometimes go rogue and pillage when out of money?

Its fascinating.

[richter]

"Looked nothing like they did in the movie 300" what??? You mean to tell me the Immortals weren't a bunch of Samurai orcs?

[parsarustami]

Hollywood representation of persians in every persian dynasty pack:

Turbans, scimitars or curved swords, dirty clothes, deserts, no trees, oriental music's, belly dances, flying carpet.

[LarsOfTheMohicans]

ngl, I thought the video would talk about ancient soldiers who suffered from the condition called gigantism, making them literal giants and a huge demoraliser against enemy troops.

[adeelabbas]

An ancient history documentary about warfare in Ancient Persia is like the original action blockbuster—think epic chariot chases, secret tunnel surprises, and battle strategies so clever, even Sun Tzu would need a second watch!

[IronWarrior]

Those are some amazing stone carvings. The architectural engineering of Persepolis was astounding as well. Their building techniques were very advanced for the time and ahead of anything contemporary found in Greece. One interesting thing is the Persians never depicted fighting soldiers in their artstyle nor scenes of war, which speaks to their generally mild nature. They clearly preferred to show themselves as diplomatic masters.

[fletaun]

Thanks you making this video i really love to learn more about ancient warfare but most of other youtuber only talk about their conquest as a whole rather explaining the minute details

[DefeatedRoyalist]

My favorite and under appreciated Achaemenid military operations.

- Megabyzus’ invasion of Northern Greece, outmaneuvers coalition of heavily armored mountain tribes and destroys them.

- Siege of Doriscus, Greek coalition is unable to kick Persian Garrison under Mescames out of Thrace. Persians eventually withdrawal after peace negotiations.

- failed Athenian expedition to Egypt, Persian forces are able to outmaneuver and destroy Greek coalition during closing operations of second Greco-Persian War.

- Persian regional military leader, Struthas uses corps of chariots supported by traditional Persian troops to route Spartan raiding force and harass Spartan army during invasion of Anatolia. Note that the Spartans never took fortified Persian cities/forts. I’d wager Struthas’ were a major factor in this.

- battle of Persian Gate, Final battle of Achaemenid Empire. Eventually defeated, the Persians are able to humble Alexander and his vanguard prior to the empires total collapse.

- post Achaemenid Persians continue to serve in armies of Hellenistic civil wars even proving as decisive factors to victory at several battles.


There are other Persian victories but these stand out and are often downplayed by Greek/Roman authors.

Dr. Pierre Briant covers these operations in his book, From Cyrus to Alexander. Excellent book!

[TheColombiano]

The Persians are the most under rated empire of all time... all roads lead to Persia

[rawwdi]

Omg I never expected any Persian content any soon and I couldn't be happier to be wrong. Big ups Sandrhoman 😍😍😍

[cjthebeesknees]

We eating good this Sunday morning lads, King of Kings breakfast.

[joujoujiji]

This ancient history documentary is exactly what I've been looking for—detailed, engaging, and visually stunning!

[aforrosaline]

This ancient history documentary really brings the past to life. Incredible visuals and storytelling!

[viscountjulian]

I love this channel and I appreciate that you are covering the Achaemenids, however there were a number of problems with this video. Your bibliography was great, however Sean Mannings book Armed Force in Teispid -Achaemenid Empire, is the best and most up to date book on the subject, and it's absence showed.

It addresses a lot of the myths around Persian military, and there is a great section on the Persian reliance on sheer numbers which I felt was the biggest issue with this video.

Are we supposed to believe that Cyrus relied on superior numbers when he fought Astyages, or when he invaded Lydia or the Babylonian empire from a mountainous homeland? Even if the army of Xerxes was massive that doesn't mean that in every campaign the Persians had superior numbers or massive armies.

In Greek and Roman literature it was a trope that Barbarian armies were massive. Thucydides says a Thracian king led an army of 150, 000 against Macedon and Herodotus has a Sicilian Tyrant leading an army 300, 000 of barbarians into Sicily. These numbers are not believable and are given for Barbarians from Persians, Carthaginians and Celts.

Dusinbere's book Empire Authority and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia has a section on military organisation talks (using Xenophon) about the troops assembled to deal with the Spartan incursion as Assyrian hoplites, 80 hyrcanian cavalry and 800 light armed troops from Comania. I think that far more speaks to a small scale reality of imperial concerns of small mobile units that could be hastily assembled to deal with incursions, that Persian 'gigantism'.

Manning's book has great section on the historiography and dealing with "the availability bias" and how our views of Persian military are totally coloured by the clashes with Macedon and the Greek City States, as well as how myths about Persian military have perpetuated through scholarship.

Some of this you touched on, and I appreciate 18 minutes is not a lot to get through a subject that's a scholarly minefield.

I think this channel is the premium military history channel and I brought these concerns up, not to question that, but because I know this channel is dedicated to good scholarly practice.

Thank you for the hard work and I eagerly await the next video.

For those who found this comment useful and want accessible material on the subject, Roel Konijnendijk (one of the scholars cited in the video), has a number of videos on YouTube about Persian and Greek warfare and is a contributor to askhistorians Reddit page which tackles a lot of questions regarding Greek and Persian warfare.

Cheers.

[sarahsidney]

Love your channel. Your videos are always so well researched.

[antidweller]

The Alexander Sarcophagus and Alexander Mosaic offer the most accurate depictions of ancient Persians soldiers.

[mdshohid]

What an enlightening ancient history documentary! It’s like traveling back in time.

[KingExituS]

The Persian Empire like any other Empire managed to organize bigger armies, but i wouldn't say the mass numbers was their main focus.
Early Persian armies were often outnumbered by their enemies, still they were very successful due to superior leadership and cavalry, which up to the modern era have always been one of their main strength.
The Greek historians most likey exaggerated with the size of Persian armies, however its also plausible that Persian focused on the size of their armies against Greeks, because the Greek soldiers had superior armour and weapons.

[WissHH-]

Another magnificent piece of work. Indeed the achaemenid empire is usually overlooked and doesnt have the same recognition as many other empires, being prob rhe first global empire too.

[marymoberg]

So much to learn from this ancient history documentary! Thank you for sharing this knowledge!