Units of History - Sassanid Horse Archers DOCUMENTARY

In this animated history documentary series we bring to life the military of the Sassanid Empire. We begin by discussing the fall of the Parthian Empire and the rise of the Sassanid Empire. This involved a reorganization of its political structure with a far greater degree of control to be exerted from the shahanshah. However stability still relied to a great extent on the Great Houses of Parthia. It is from these families and the other members of the iranian heartland that the core of the Sassanid military would draw its strength. These would be augmented by auxiliaries, mercenaries, and allies from further afield including Armenia, the Central Streppe, and Kushan.

Specifically for the Sassanid Horse Archers we look at their equipment, training and tactics. These are then put into practice with a review of their service history. As such we cover the rise of the Sassanid Empire under Ardashir I. We then cover the campaigns of his descendants againt the Roman Army, the Byzantine Army, the White Huns, the Arabs and more.

You can learn more about the Units of History through our documentary series:

THE NEAR EAST

THE BYZANTINES

THE GREEK WORLD

THE ROMANS

THE NORTHMEN

THE EASTERN EUROPEANS
The Druzhina :

THE AFRICANS

Credits:
Research = Eric TenWolde and Soroush Torabi
Writing = Invicta
Narration = Guy Michaels
Artwork = Penta Limited
Reenactment = Eran Ud Turan

Source and Suggested Reading:
"The Armies of Ancient Persia - The Sassanians" by Kaveh Farrokh
"A Synopsis of Sasanian Military Organization and Combat Units" by Kaveh Farrokh
"Sassanian Millitary" by David Nicole

[HistoricalWeapons]

Horse archery should be an Olympic sport

[JonathanRivera-djmm]

The Sassanid Empire was one of the greatest and last Empires in Ancient Persia! Is very sad what happened to them!

[neemapaxima]

Last time I was this early, Arabs were still paying tribute to Sassanid Shahs

[kevting]

Ahhh yes! The Sassanids! Aka the Make Persia Great Again dynasty.

[Sandman]

As an Iranian, be prepared for the Persians that will spam the comment section faster then our ancestors spammed arrows, I have spoken for my people.

[macentertainment]

I love the history of iran! Such rich culture Horse archers/ Kataphracts have always been an interesting topic to me

[TheAshHeritor]

Sassanids are one of the most interesting powers in the Dark Ages, in my opinion! Great to see them getting covered!

[nicklindberg]

All will tremble before the House of Karen!

[stephenkenney]

Romans: Ha! How much damage can a bunch of horsey boys with bows really do?

Persians: And we took that personally.

[FnoL]

A few words about depictions of Iranians.
As an Iranian, I thank Invicta for paying attention to the history of Iran. Not because I consider Iran to be better, in any sense, of other countries, but because Iran has played a central role in shaping of our world (especially from 6th century BC to 7th century AD), and without studying its history, it is impossible to understand even the present time in a tenable manner. However, western depictions of Iranians in history are often stereotyped and inaccurate. The problem can easily be seen when one juxtaposes depictions of Greeks and Romans with depictions of Iranians: The former people are often glorified and shown based on good artistic works, while the latter are often denigrated and shown using sketchy and ugly drawings without taking into consideration the various historical periods and the manifold of customs (often mixing e.g. Achaemenid clothing and armor with those of the Sas(s)anids!). This video is surely a huge improvement, but is also a bit stereotyped when it comes to clothing and armor, and inaccurate with regards to the maps of various historical periods. This kind of issues can easily be solved by looking at academic works such as "Rome's Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians" and the two volumes of "The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars" (Both are easily accessible on the internet). Again, I must stress that this video is a huge improvement, and I am sure it can contributes to rectify the widespread misconceptions about Iranians.
Cheers

[thienngo]

Man I just couldn’t let it pass by : House of Karen 🤣🤣🤣🤣. The emperor of Sassanids must have a hard time dealing with them huh

[magellantv]

The level of skill and precision they possessed was astounding.

[maven]

Loved this episode. I'm very glad to see content from ancient Persia. ❤️

[JacquesOF]

The Karens came from a long line dating back to the Sassanid empire 4:41. Descendants of one of the great sassanid houses. 🤣

[eldandraken]

this was a refreshing documentary. the "west" is very interesting and everything, but overly exploited, there are already countless documentaries there, and seeing you guys venture more into the east and into africa has been quite a pleasant change; i would urge you to carry on with that trend, and also add ancient america, specifically meso and south america. South american history is woefully underappreciated and unknown to the rest of the world, and to themselves, and it would be wonderful to work against that. thank you

[juyver]

What I would give for an episode on the Thracian Peltast or Cretan Archers. However such an amazing video exploring the militaries of the east and greatly opened my eyes to their might as well as their magnificence. Horse mounted archers and javelin throwers have always been a favorite of mine as well as irregular light infantry warriors. This video was great truly and is precisely why I will remain a life time subscriber! Good job guys!

[thai-songruber]

Would love to see a netflix/hbo series following a Sassanid warrior

[yaqubleis]

Sassanian Empire one of the best Empire in history

[ShahanshahShahin]

*The erstwhile Achaemenid Immortals were heavily upgraded and modified and became known as the **_Zhayedan_** (Immortals) heavily cavalry in the Sassanian Dynasty the most powerful unit of the Zhayedan Heavy Cavelry was the **_Pushtigban-Salar_** which consists of 1000 high ranking **_Sāvāran_** heavy cavelry and was an elite military unit of the Sasanian Empire, charged with the protection of the Persian Shahenshah (King of Kings/Emperor).*

*A sub-unit of pushtigban were the **_Gyan-Avspar_**, the ("sacrificers of their lives") - the best of the pushtigban. This sub-unit of pushtigban fought with distinction and zeal befitting their name during Julian's invasion of Persia in the 4th century AD.*

[sohrabnavahandi]

this makesme cry, a non iranian is making videos like this while iranians make iddiotic videos about mullah.