Sassanian Army

[JP Vieira]

Hello
I am currently researching for an illustration depicting different warrior of the sassanian army from the 5th and 6th centuries. I will include cataphracts, horse archer, war elephant and infantry. I am basing my rearch on Osprey titles "Rome's enemies: parthian and sassanid persians" and Sassanian elite cavalry.
Can anyone direct to other sources?
Again I am most interest in pictorial or text description of weapons, armour, appearence, etc.
Thanks in advance
Best regards
JP VIeira

[Jona Lendering]

Pictures of Sassanid weapons etc. are rare, but you may benefit from the links offered on this page.

[Commilito]

It sounds weird, but you might wish to buy a book on Roman heavy cavalry (like clibinarii) from the late period (c. 500), or a book about Justinian's armies. It should have stuff on your guys, and the Byzantine cavalry of Justinian was basically the same as the Sassanid cavalry.

[JP Vieira]

Hello
Thanks for your help.
I am also researching about sassanian war elephants of the period.
Can anyone direct to some sources?
Thanks in advance
Best regards
JP Vieira

[Robert Vermaat]

I am also researching about sassanian war elephants of the period.
Can anyone direct to some sources?

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... highlight=

[JP Vieira]

Hello
regarding the sassanian elephants, did they use it "cataphract" style (like some sucessor's armies, or were they used with only a wooden tower and some warriors on it?
Best regards
JP Vieira

[Robert Vermaat]

I'm afraid that's not known. The sources, as quoted in Rance's article, often rely only on 'ancient' description, without real eyewitness reports. We just can't tell.

[FAVENTIANVS]

Yes...

[Comerus Gallus]

You have to include Montvert Publishing; The Sassanian Army.

[JP Vieira]

I'm afraid that's not known. The sources, as quoted in Rance's article, often rely only on 'ancient' description, without real eyewitness reports. We just can't tell.

Hello
I still have doubts because in Osprey's Sassanian Elite cavalryman there is (in a two fold plate) a representation of a Sassanid armoured elephant. Does anyone know of period representations (or description) of sassanid armoured elephant like this one?
Best regards
JP Vieira

[Eleatic Guest]

Does anyone know of period representations (or description) of sassanid armoured elephant like this one?

Not exactly Sassanian..:

[perrygray]

The last shah of Iran had a parade marking an important anniversary of Iran which included soldiers dressed in ancient garb. There were several units attired as Sassanian troops. Photos of the parade are avilable, but hard to find.

Other sources include:
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/sass ... n_army.php

http://www.xmission.com/~bob/SasMilitary.html

Perry

[SMC]

Still back-tracking through old posts - some very interesting material there. Maybe if I had RAT had been around earlier I mightn't have dropped my interest in this area for so long.

Anyhow I did a bit of digging in by database and thesis for Sassanian use of elephants in engagements and came up with these references. I know the topic has died but it might still be of interest to the original poster.

'Elephants, when used as mobile siege towers, were usually dealt with easily. Nowhere do we hear of these animals actually causing a section of wall to be taken, but we do know that they were normally driven off, often inflicting damage on their own troops as they retreated. At Amida in 359 they were dispersed by firebrands thrown around them. Procopius suggests a pig suspended from the wall as a standard anti-elephant device, but his is the only example. Firebrands were probably a lot more practical because they would have been readily available anyway for dealing with siege-engines. ............ One plausible explanation for the use of cavalry may have been against fairly low outer circuit walls. On horseback, the clibinarii may have had the necessary height to engage a defender on roughly equal terms. It is clear that some fighting certainly occurred at the outer wall of Amida. We know that this was the principle Sassanian use of elephants in sieges, for which they were equipped with towers that could carry two or three men. As mobile towers, the elephants were slow, but the iron or wooden shell at least provided some protection for its passengers. There are several examples of elephants in sieges, but their small numbers probably made their effect fairly negligible. However, if they were accompanied by cavalry, with horses accustomed to their smell, then their effectiveness may have been increased. The natural extension of this would be to let cavalry attack walls that were low enough for the height of the mount to offset the wall height. Another explanation may lie in Bivar’s belief that between 200 and 350 armour was in the ascendancy over archery. This would allow heavily armoured mounted archers to come closer to the walls to provide suppressive fire, while at the same time staying out of the penetrating range of arrows. It would probably not keep them out of artillery range, but as we have seen artillery may not have been commonly encountered.'



Nisibis 337:
JEROME CHRON.P234,17-25 + THEOD.HR.1;11-12 + THEOD.HE.2;30,1-14 +VITA JACOB (SYRIAC) + CHRON.PASC.337 + HIST.S.EPH.6-7 + THEOPH.5829. The elephants were only to be used in the final charge against the hastily rebuilt wall but the ground was too boggy.

Nisibis 350:
JULIAN OR.1;27A-29A + 2;62B-67A + ZOS.3;8,2 + THEOPH.CHRON.AM.5841 + EPHREM.SERM.DE NIC.15;97-170 + ZON.13;7,1-14 + CHRON.PASCH.350
Persians surrounded the city and used rams, engines and mines. Then blocked river. Possibly to cause drought in the city at first, then they released it against the walls as in 337. We know the Persians had large numbers of troops with them. They released the water against the wall and breached it on one side. They then tried to storm it several times with cavalry, infantry and elephants but failed. The account by Julian saying the city was surrounded by banks and the water allowed to build up against the walls and with siege engines mounted on boats is highly unlikely, though the bit about several attempts oon the breach is plausible. The sermones by Ephrem imply the siege ended in a battle when troops inside sallied out and put the Persians to flight. The Chron.Pasch. refers to elephants being killed by catapults and several attempts on the breach, which ended in disaster in the boggy earth. The spiritual hero was Bishop Vologeses. The Persians withdrew unable to get through the breach and because supplies were exhausted and disease was setting in.


The two sieges may have been conflated in some of the primary sources as their descriptions are very alike, indeed Julian's is very fanciful hving the water overtopping the walls. Lightfoots excellent examination is worth reading. C.S. Lightfoot, ‘Facts and Fiction - the Third Siege of Nisibis (AD 350)’, Historia, 37 (1988), 105-25



Amida 359
AMMIANUS 19;1,1-8,5 - Ammianus includes elephants in Sapor's army that besieged the city for 73 days


Ctesiphon 363
AMMIANUS 24;6 + ZOSIMUS 3.25,5-7 + EXC.DE SENT 22 - Again Ammianus lists elephants in the Persian battle force arrayed in defense of outside the city's walls.

Maraanga 363
AMMIANUS 24;6 + ZOSIMUS 3.25,5-7 + EXC.DE SENT 22 - no real details

Battle sosmewhere on the Tigris 363
AMMIANUS 25;3 + ZOSIMUS 3;28,4-29,4. + EUTROP.10,16 - no real details


Suma/Sumere 363
AMMIANUS 25;6,4 + ZOSIMUS 3;30,2-4
The Persians attacked the Byzantines when they reached the fort of Suma. Their cavalry and elephants attacked the Byzantine right wing and it retreated in a disorganised manner back to the baggage train. The Byzantines fired at the elephants, wounding them with the result that the injured animals wrecked the Persian attack. The result was inconclusive, though the Byzantines appear to have got the worst of the engagement.


Nisibis 421
SOC.HE.7;18
The Byzantines marched on Nisibis and started a siege. Vararanes, the Persian king, wanted to send a relieving force and got together elephants and men. He sent Alamundaras and his Saracen force ahead, but they seem to have avoided battle for some reason. Socrates says they were afraid and panic, divinely inspired, set in and they ran into the Euphrates, 100,000 of them drowning in the process! The Byzantines abandoned the siege when they realised Vararanes and the relief force was on its way.


Edessa 503
JOSH.STYL.59-63 - elephants are listed in the attacking Persian army.



Edessa 544
PROCOP.WARS 2;26,5-27,43 (+ 8;14,30-36?)
The Persians first raided a flock pasturing near the wall which resulted in an inconclusive skirmish. Chosroes asked for money from Edessa but the inhabitants refused to pay so a siege began. The Persians constructed a mound using logs, earth and stones. A sally slowed down the work and as it approached the walls the Persians protected it with goat skins. The Edessenes tried to negotiate again but failed. They raised the wall opposite the mound but the latter was already too high. So they dug under and fired it. 6 days later a surprise assault was made on the walls but was foiled. Chosroes sent his men against the great gate but the Edessenes sallied out and put them to flight. More negotiations failed and the Persians then launched an all out attack on each gate, which included siege engines and towers. It failed. Two days later a sally foiled a gate attack. The Persians eventually agreed to leave if they were given 5000lbs of gold. If Procopius 8;14,35-7 refers to this siege, elephants may have been used one attack.

Rhodopolis 551
PROCOP.WARS.8;13,21-22 + AGATHIAS 4;15,1 - 8 elephants among the Persian force.

Archaeopolis 551
PROCOP.WARS 8;13,3-24,44
Same campaign as above.The Persians attacked the wall at two points. The first was where extra walls were built out to the river to protect the water supply. The other section was at the lower gate. Here they used the Hunnic light rams against the wall and using the elephants and the 'mountaineer' Dolomites in the heights they were able to shoot down on the Byzantines on the parapet and virtually clear them from it. A Laz had agreed to fire buildings in the city while the Persians stormed the wall in order to divert attention or to burn the grain supplies if no one attended the fire. The Byzantines decided they had to risk an open battle. They fell upon the enemy so suddenly that the Persians were totally at a loss as to what to do and were routed. An elephant even turned and stampeded. 4000 were killed in the rout and ensuing flight.

Unnamed fortress - 553
PROCOP.WARS 8;17,14-15
On campaign in Lazica the Persian had a large number of elephants

Unknown 553
PROCOP.WARS 8;17,18-19 same Persian force as above was attacked in a pass when retreating from Archaeopolis - may still have had some elephants left.


Phasis 556
AGATHIAS 3;20,8-28,3
Persian army had elephants at the siege.


Plain of Khalamakhik 574
SEBEOS 8;68 + 9;70
Sebeos says it was a resounding defeat for the Persians in which they were virtually wiped out and the elephants captured. However, if they went on to attack Angl they must have had a reasonable force left.

Blarathon 592
THEOPH.SIM.5;10,3-10,12 + EVAG.HE.6;19 + THEOPH.CHRON.AM6081 + SEBEOS 10;79-80 + CHRON.1234 P216-217
The rebel Persian force station elephants on each wing.


Arxamoun (Arzamon) 605
THEOP.CHRON.6096 + SEBEOS p56
More of a battle than siege, the elephants and heavier and more numerous cavalry of the Persians told in the end.


Babylon 634
John Baggot GLUBB 148
Probably only a small battle which the Arabs won, but Persians had a solitary elephant.


Battle of the Bridge (Quss Al Natif) 634
John Baggot GLUBB 162
The leading elephant of the Persians killed Abu Ubaid and some of the arabs then tried to recross the river


Al Buwaib 635
John Baggot GLUBB 165
The Persians fought in three units each headed by an elephant.


Qadash 636
CHRON.1234 P246-247 GLUBB 196-201
The Arabs dealt with the elephants whose panic unnerved the Persians moe than the Arabs.


A bit of annecdotal information.
"Indeed one might be led with good reason to marvel at the assiduity and resourcefulness of the Persians in the prosecution of their wars; for it was they who took in hand the the road leading from Iberia into Colchis, which was everywhere impeded by precipitous ravines and difficult ground covered with brush, and concealed by forests of wide-spreading trees, so that even for an unencumbered traveller the way had seemed impassable previously, and they made it so smooth that not only did their entire cavalry pass that way with no difficulty, but they also marched over that road taking with them as many of their elephants as they wished."
Procop.Wars 8;13,5

[MeinPanzer]

I'm afraid that's not known. The sources, as quoted in Rance's article, often rely only on 'ancient' description, without real eyewitness reports. We just can't tell.

Hello
I still have doubts because in Osprey's Sassanian Elite cavalryman there is (in a two fold plate) a representation of a Sassanid armoured elephant. Does anyone know of period representations (or description) of sassanid armoured elephant like this one?
Best regards
JP Vieira

If you can get a hold of Montvert Publishing's title on the armies of Bactria, there is a line drawing of a small artifact from around Taxila, IIRC, that shows a war elephant with a tower on its back that has some sort of covering of large rectangular plates on it. I can't remember the exact date or details because I don't have my copy with me, but it sounds like the closest thing to what you are looking for.

[Sean Manning]

For archaeological finds, Simon James, The Excavation of Dura-Europus, has some great things. You'll probably need access to an academic library to get it though.