08-22-2010, 10:28 AM
Hello all,
I'm currently doing some research about the battle of Carrhae. Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with Parthian weaponry, so I would be grateful for some help in this respect. I'm particularly interested in their archery equipment now.
Do we know anything about Parthian arrows apart from the descriptions in Plutarch and Cassius Dio? Do we have any archaeological finds?
How many arrows would an average Parthian horseman have in his quiver (please disregard the camels with spare arrows for now)? Do we have any evidence for this? Well, I know that Al Tabari claims that Persian soldier carried 30 arrows during the reign of Khosrau I. (well allegedly, I admit I haven't read the passage as I don't currently have Al Tabari's work available) and Maurice's Strategicon claims that the Roman/Byzantine (whatever you prefer) soldier would have some 30-40 arrows in his quiver. The Romans of that time were probably heavily influenced by Sassanians, who in turn may have been influenced by Parthians, but this seems rather too far fetched with regard to an event of 53 B.C. Do we perhaps have any Parthian quiver, from which it would be possible to deduce how many arrows could have been carried in it? Or are there any closer parallels for numbers of arrows carried by archers of various ancient nations?
I know about the Parthian bow from Yrzi. I have Brown's article in Seminarium Kondakovianum. Is there any other relevant literature about Parthian bows that I should check?
I would appreciate your help very much.
Thank you in advance.
Greetings
Alexandr
I'm currently doing some research about the battle of Carrhae. Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with Parthian weaponry, so I would be grateful for some help in this respect. I'm particularly interested in their archery equipment now.
Do we know anything about Parthian arrows apart from the descriptions in Plutarch and Cassius Dio? Do we have any archaeological finds?
How many arrows would an average Parthian horseman have in his quiver (please disregard the camels with spare arrows for now)? Do we have any evidence for this? Well, I know that Al Tabari claims that Persian soldier carried 30 arrows during the reign of Khosrau I. (well allegedly, I admit I haven't read the passage as I don't currently have Al Tabari's work available) and Maurice's Strategicon claims that the Roman/Byzantine (whatever you prefer) soldier would have some 30-40 arrows in his quiver. The Romans of that time were probably heavily influenced by Sassanians, who in turn may have been influenced by Parthians, but this seems rather too far fetched with regard to an event of 53 B.C. Do we perhaps have any Parthian quiver, from which it would be possible to deduce how many arrows could have been carried in it? Or are there any closer parallels for numbers of arrows carried by archers of various ancient nations?
I know about the Parthian bow from Yrzi. I have Brown's article in Seminarium Kondakovianum. Is there any other relevant literature about Parthian bows that I should check?
I would appreciate your help very much.
Thank you in advance.
Greetings
Alexandr
