10-29-2006, 06:11 PM
Quote:Quote:I know. We're not concerned with the Greeks and elites are, by definition, minorities. Which begs the question; How big an army has an elite shock force of 10,000?
Are you implying here the "Inmortals"? Aren´t you aware that they didn´t exist in reality? Herodotus translated wrongly the Persian Anusiya (Companions) as Inmortals, and then made up an story on why they were called thus. Other Western sources quoting Inmortals later derived from Herodotus the name, what BTW indicates how little they knew about the Persian army
When you say "they didn't exist", you actually appear to mean "they weren't called that". Or are you telling me that Xerxes had no elite troops? Or just that we don't know how many? If Herodotos called them Immortals, I don't see why I shouldn't - you clearly know who I mean.
You have clearly done more research than I have and you argue very well from your sources, but too many of your references are to other ages and I don't see any reason to assume that the ancients could not actually be more efficient than some of their successors, and you haven't demonstrated why this should be so. Indeed, I don't see how such a claim could be established.
