Sassanian Army

[Roxofarnes]

Maybe it's already mentioned but the story about the Sassanian peasant infantry chained together to force them to stand their ground at Nihawand in 642...
Is this based on reality, some weird interpretation or just propaganda??

If you have ever played chess you know what the infantry was expected to do on the battlefield. Mainly - block the manouvers of more agile troops. The chain is attested not only by Nihavend and it seems to appear too often to be just a fantasy however it was pointed that soldiers chained in fives might mean that the samllest unit was five warriors. Going back to chess and role of living fortification played by Sasanian infantry - chains fixed over waist level might disturb any cavalry, especially if ranks of five were placed in several rows (even if the first horse would jump over the chain it would get stuck in next ones while the next riders would be stopped rapidly by the first - I guess chains would be very uncomforatble device for close combat cavalry, the rest would be sorted by presence of the foot archers among the infantry). Similarly Prokopios mentions that Sasanian infantry had only thyreoi as their arms. Naturally they must have had somethng more than this but it is the part of the same infantry employment as the movable fortification. Not very different from Achaemenid gerrophoroi... Obviously these troops were not the "glorious infantry" of Shahname, and losses among such soldiers were not treated as anything to be specially worried about. LAte Sasanians used field earthwork and caltropes as another way to affect the space of combat. IMHO