Units of History - The 10,000 Immortals DOCUMENTARY

In this Units of History episode we turn to the Achaemenid Persian Empire and their 10,000 Immortals who famously fought against the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

The documentary begins by looking at the origins of the unit. This involves a discussion of their first appearance in the history books by Herodotus who describes them in his account of the Greco Persian war and the invasion of Xerxes. Outside of this however, the historical record is quite limited. We therefore have to speculate on how this elite unit came about. One theory we present is the idea that the Persian Immortals were initially a bodyguard units at the immediate disposal of the Kings of Persia around which armies could be formed. Over time their prestige, size, and organization increased as the Achaemenid Empire expanded. Again due to a lack of records, we only speak briefly on their training.

Next we take a look at the weapons and armour of the Persian Immortals. This includes things like scaled armour, tall shields, a bow, axe, spear, and sword. This is to be contrasted with their fantastical depiction in the movie 300 where they fight against the equally mythologized spartan army.

We then cover the battle tactics of the Immortals and their service history. This involves extensive fighting against other eastern forces, steppe nomads, indians, egyptians, and of course greeks. Specifically we discuss their involvement in the battle of thermopylae, the battle of Plataea, the battle of Cunaxa, and the battle of Gaugamela. Stay tuned for more persian army documentary videos and coverage of other famous units of history!

Bibliography and Suggested Reading:
The Persian Army 560–330 BC by Nicholas Sekunda
The Achaemenid Persian Army Paperback by Duncan Head
Armies of Ancient Persia by Marek Adam Wozniak
Cyrus The Great Paperback by Stephen Dando-Collins

#History
#Documentary
#Immortals

[thedoruk]

B - But! Where are the Persianate Samurai wearing clad Black armor with Skull faces ?!

[buddyboi]

As an Iranian I can't begin to talk about how happy this video made me. When someone mentions Immortals all they can think of is the movie 300 in which they looked like demonic orcish creatures. This is the correct image people should think of when someone mentions Immortals

[denisdenak]

Wait what? I'm pretty sure they were dual katana wielding ninja orcs.

[CollinBuckman]

Fun fact: some people believe "Immortal" is actually a mistranslation on the part of Herodotus, that he mistook the Iranian word the word anûšiya- ("companion") with anauša- ("immortal"), although this is by no means a widely accepted theory.

[huss]

The unbiased and extreme professional academic approach to history made by this channel is unmatched anywhere.

Truly a beautiful and rare thing.

Thank you very much Invicta.

[antoinemonks]

An empire from Greece to India, soldiers who fought everything from nomads to heavy infantry. One thing we CAN be sure of; the Immortals were formidable.
Edit: there's a very funny person in this thread x)

[RealRezaliza]

as a Iranian i do remember we learned in our history books about immortal guards ( in Persian we call them " Javidan" =Immortal or "Sepahe Javidan" = Immortal army) at school, there was a castle in each major city with about 10, 000 immortal soldiers and they always were ready for any battle and the only reason for calling them immortal wasn't because of they were well trained and strong, if one of the immortal soldiers were not able to fight for any reason (death, illness, etc) he would be replaced and thats why they were called immortal guards and those castles were always full of strong soldiers.

sorry for my bad English i learned by my self.

[antonioussykas]

Honestly the fact that you both provide a disclaimer where information is speculative, on top of providing where/how this information was gathered, is a breath of fresh air that sets this channel apart from many other history channels.

[DarkKing]

When you're so badass do that your descendants 2 thousand years later will still name things after you

[easthurricane]

Thank you for covering my countrymen with respect and a balanced perspective. I admire Greek culture but it's very hard to get information highlighting Persian history in a balanced way so thank you!

[carloreytansiongco]

Unit suggestion:
Numidian Cavalry
Germanic/Gallic Proto-Knights
Late Roman Comitatenses
Peltasts

[makky]

Imagine a historical accurate movie about the Persian wars

[coyotewayfarer]

Sacred Band of Thebes would be an interesting unit to cover next.

[williamwulff]

Not like the Uruk-Hai from 300 I presume

[mgr]

" [24] My vast army marched into Babylon in peace; I did not permit anyone to frighten the people of [Sumer] /and\ Akkad. [25] I sought the welfare of the city of Babylon and all its sacred centers. As for the citizens of Babylon, [x x x upon wh]om he imposed a yoke which was not the gods' wish and not befitting them, [26] I relieved their weariness and freed them from their bonds. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced over [my good] deeds. "

Cyrus the Great (from Cyrus Cylinder)

[Πυθαγόρειος]

Thank you!! As a Greek proud of my ancestors and their wars I was tired of foreigners having a completely wrong idea of persia. They were civilized and great people not orc-like inhumane monsters like a "certain" Hollywood movie display them. Greeks respected Persians in a lot of aspects and so did the Persians respected the Greeks. The western image of Persia is so twisted and wrong and almost every Greek cringes hard when watching the movie "300". When watching the movie I was just speechless of how wrong it was. Also lame, yes lame, I think the real event is way cooler then the events of the movie "300"

[felipe]

Many people in the west, especially due to nationalism (which many times merges with propaganda) tend to believe that persian civilization ended at Plataea or with Alexander, but this is far from the truth. The Achaemenid Empire actually kept meddling in greek politics and conflicts for decades, especially the Peloponesian War where they would often side with the spartans or the athenians. The whole period of spartan hegemony was enforced by full persian support of Sparta and it's policies as a way to contain athenian imperialistic desires. Then, when Sparta itself became imperialistic and tried to control all Greece, the persians switched sides and started supporting Athens, and would again switch sides in favour of Sparta when the athenians started gaining territory. By the end of the Corinthian War (which was actually ended by the persian emperor Artaxerxes II and his spartan allies in the so-called Peace of Antacildas), Persia would have taken back all of it's lost territories in Asia Minor and reign in peace until the time of Alexander The Great, who himself was inspired by persian emperor Cyrus The Great, adopted persian culture and forms of government (satrapies), married a persian woman and changed his capital to Babylon, former territory of the Persian Empire.

Persia would later ressurge in the form of Parthia, becoming the only empire to defy roman hegemony and defeat them in several occasions. The later Sassanian Empire (which seemed itself as inheritor of the achaemenid tradition) would be even more sucessful, defeating the eastern romans many times and almost conquering them at one point, but then it was too late and the arabs came in. Yet, ironically, the persians would be the ones to have a major influence on muslim culture, art and tradition, making kings out of desert raiders.

[Keyhan-cc]

So interesting, I think i can undrestand now why the units were famous as the 10 000 Immortals .imagine your land gonna be conquered by the Persians and you hear that there are gonna be immortals showing up at your city walls the next day, and what you know about these warriors is that they are the same warriors which conquered every other land neighboring your lands, they were 10 000 from the beginning, and are still 10 000 of them after all the conquest they have done, that gives you the thought that these warriors will conquere any land with out losing one single soldier and that would make your legs shake for sure. whether the name was given to them from the beginning or was just a title they gained from the nations I think psychological warfare was what was behind that title.

[brunomattos]

Why are they almost never represented with helmets? Such an elite unit would have good helmets, we know that their assyrian predecessors used helmets

[daca]

Can we just apritiate how Iran was like: "Immortals but with tanks!", and how metal this sounds?