05-23-2005, 12:53 PM
hoplite14gr
There is a problem with your comparison, because as has been noted before, the Grande Armée in fact was composed of several armies,less than 150.000 strong each (3 French plus the Austrian and Prussian Corps) all advancing through different routes and over a front of 1.000 kms, while Xerxes army was advancing as a single force over the same route.
As general procedure, as an historian I prefer not to give any credit on numbers to literary sources, at least they are military men talking about a force that they knew first hand, and even then I am very careful, too many apparently reliable sources are in fact wrong, for instance Bernardo da Forli states that the French force that stormed Mordano in 1494 was composed of 14.000 men, he is considered a reliable source and the number is not that unlikely, however it happens that we have a muster roll for the French force, and that indicates 2.064 men in service.
There is a problem with your comparison, because as has been noted before, the Grande Armée in fact was composed of several armies,less than 150.000 strong each (3 French plus the Austrian and Prussian Corps) all advancing through different routes and over a front of 1.000 kms, while Xerxes army was advancing as a single force over the same route.
As general procedure, as an historian I prefer not to give any credit on numbers to literary sources, at least they are military men talking about a force that they knew first hand, and even then I am very careful, too many apparently reliable sources are in fact wrong, for instance Bernardo da Forli states that the French force that stormed Mordano in 1494 was composed of 14.000 men, he is considered a reliable source and the number is not that unlikely, however it happens that we have a muster roll for the French force, and that indicates 2.064 men in service.
AKA Inaki
