Achaemenian reenactment

[Wringher]

What do you mean exactly? Its a fact that Persian armies included formations of men with small shields and spears or javelins, and that they became more common in the 4th century BCE. Whether they should be called peltophoroi or takabara or targeteers can be debated, but I thought we agreed that the word describes a real phenomenon.

I hope this makes more sense: Personally, I would call the use of the term takabara for any Persian troop type wild fantasy since we don't know what taka means and because the only recorded uses of the Old Persian term takabara are as a description of some unidentified Ionian/Greek people.

Our knowledge of the Achaimenian Persian army over the centuries is frustratingly very fragmentary. I don't know that I would say that "Its a fact that Persian armies included formations of men with small shields and spears or javelins, and that they became more common in the 4th century BCE." Isn't it possible that the highest percentage of such troops in a Persian army was back in the early days of Cyrus the Great when a large part or possibly most of his army conceivably consisted of lightly armed tribal levies? I would also guess that the armies of Darius the Great and Xerxes included a lot of lightly armed troops with small shields and spears or javelins especially from the mountainous areas of the empire. So, I wouldn't say what Sean said in the above quote, not because he is wrong, but because I think that the evidence is too disjointed and meagre. Perhaps, the key to Sean's comment is the word "formations" as in troops drawn up for close order melee. I look forward to learning the "facts" and I'm not being in the least bit sarcastic. I hope to find out something I don't presently know or think about what I know in a different way. Thanks for the discussion.