Ancient army numbers

[Tomenable]

And that Persian and Indian heavy cavalry armed with long spears even managed to break through the line of Macedonian phalangites (pezhetairoi) at the point of contact of taxis (one taxis = "paper strength" of 2048 phalangites - according to: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/...Notes.html) under command of Simmias and taxis under command of Polysperchon:

(...) Simmias and his brigade were not yet able to start with Alexander in pursuit, but causing the phalanx to halt there, he took part in the struggle, because the left wing of the Macedonians was reported to be hard pressed. In this part of the field, their line being broken, some of the Indians and of the Persian cavalry burst through the gap towards the baggage of the Macedonians; and there the action became desperate. For the Persians fell boldly on the men, who were most of them unarmed, and never expected that any men would cut through the double phalanx and break through upon them. When the Persians made this attack, the foreign prisoners also assisted them by falling upon the Macedonians in the midst of the action. But the commanders of the men who had been posted as a reserve to the first phalanx, learning what was taking place, quickly moved from the position which they had been ordered to take, and coming upon the Persians in the rear, killed many of them there collected round the baggage. But the rest of them gave way and fled. The Persians on the right wing, who had not yet become aware of the flight of Darius, rode round Alexander's left wing and attacked Parmenio in flank. (...)

A quite extraordinary and valiant achievement.

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Edit:

In any case George, let Arrian's (non-propagandising!) figure of 300,000 be killed by the Macedonians at the "skirmish" of Gaugamela. How then can you describe it as such? If you allow the battle to have taken six hours (oh dear, more than a "skirmish") then that amounts to some 834 Persians killed per minute.

And you forgot that Alexander's infantry practically didn't take part in that "skirmish" (according to George) and that supposedly all his cavalry except of 1800 Companions didn't charge but at best did some skirmishing (which typically doesn't inflict many casualties unless continuing for a very long time).

So we are left with 1800 Companion cavalrymen killing 834 Persians per minute (or 1668 per 2 minutes) for 6 hours (360 minutes) without any rest. I think they must have been robots.

And don't forget about another "non-propagandistic" figure - over 300,000 captured. So apart from killing 1668 per minute (or roughly one killed per 2 minutes by each of Macedonian Companions - and average Macedonian Companion killed 167 during entire battle), they also captured a similar number.

167 Persians captured by each 1 of Macedonian Companions! :mrgreen:

And further 167 killed by each 1 of Macedonian Companions! :mrgreen:

He clearly describes only the Macedonians as assaulting squadron by squadron. Are you claiming the Macedonians rode in and hurled their "javelins" and retreated?

And mighty javelins killed more per minute than German machine guns at the 1st day of the Somme! :mrgreen: