Persian Invasion of 480 BC - articles

[drsrob]

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Nature of Persian army (This is main Delbruck theory, besides logistics) The size of the Persian empire has nothing to do with his army, that was a "feudal" army composed by the noble persians and their retainers, together with some non Persian vassal lords and their retainers. The basic component was cavalry, so it must be a small army by nature
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Imo this remark deserves some additional criticism.
The original Persian Army definately was not a cavalry army. Persians were infantrymen. Only when the Persians had conquered the Median empire did they start to include cavalry.
Cyrus the Great created a cavalry arm by forcing the nobility to become horsemen. The major part of the Persian army remained infantry however, including the 10.000 immortals