10-19-2006, 08:23 PM
Quote:Easy, easy...Aryaman2:1qkwk88b Wrote:Literary sources, which are totally unreliableWhat on earth brings you to that conclusion? Totally unreliable? Then wtf are we all doing here?
The size of armies in ancient times is always based on literary sources, and they are always unreliable, they are always inflated.
Quote:The evidence of Persian inneficient logistics, when compared to the much more efficient MacedonianOh? What makes you think that? Where do you base that on?
Oh right - literary sources. Oh! But! Weren't these totally unreliable?
Inaki, the Persian Empire was a vast affair that lasted for centuries, on of the reasons being that it did not support its armies with inefficient logistics. But please tell me why you think that Macedonian logistics were much more efficient.
When I say literary sources are totally unreliable I only apply that to the figures given by those sources for armies. My conclusion for that is based on 2 facts
1) whenever I find a literary sourceand a documentary one (muster and pay rolls) for the size of an army, the literary source has given a grossly inflated figure. I could give you a good number of examples from medieval times and later, unfortunately we don´t have that level of documentary sources for Ancient times
2) From documentary sources you get a a solid frame. Field armies in the XIV and XV centuries were 5.000-10.000 strong. They get a little larger in the XVI century, by the 30YW they around 15.000-20.000, and then the military revolution of the second half of the XVII century dramatically increase their size, to a maximum record 110.000 under Marlborough command in Malplaquet (only achievable in the Low Countries, armies fighting in Spain at that time, for instance, were 25.000-30.000 at most).
Against this frame, fables about armies 1 million strong, or even 300.000 are just not realistic.
About the macedonian army comparative efficency, it is stated by Donald Engels in his book over the logistics of Alexander campaigns. I don´t remember the sources, but he claims that while there was a least 1 servant for every Persian warrior, there was 1 in 7 for the Macedonian army, and while I don´t think the number in itself be reliable, the general pattern of an army carrying a much lighter baggage is.
AKA Inaki
